Brighton supremo claims expanding Prem to 22 teams with Leeds and WBA up would resolve coronavirus crisis
BRIGHTON chief Paul Barber has called for a 22-team Premier League next season to resolve the coronavirus crisis in English football.
All elite football is currently suspended until April 3.
But Barber fears the Covid-19 virus will cause the rest of this season to be scrubbed out — and has come up with a blueprint which involves:
- No relegation from the top flight this season and the top two from the Championship getting promoted.
- A 22-team Prem season for the 2020-21 campaign, at the end of which FOUR clubs will be relegated.
- Two sides should be promoted from the Championship in 2020-21 which will return the Prem to a 20-team league in 21-22.
Barber said: “The priority for us all is to play the remainder of the season. That’s what we all want. But we have to be realistic. None of us know where the situation with the virus is heading.
“We don’t want to go down this route. But if we cannot complete the season we have got to look at quite radical solutions to try and get over a short-term hump.
“We don’t know whether or not we will be able to even complete the fixture list.
“It is a possibility, and an option, to leave the current 20 teams in the Premier League this season and bring just two teams up.
“That would mean having 22 teams and a larger relegation zone for next season, before reverting back to the current system for the 2021-22 season. It has some merit.”
If this proposal was implemented, Norwich, Aston Villa and Bournemouth would avoid relegation to the Championship and remain in the top flight.
Leeds and West Brom would earn promotion, while the sides currently in the play-off spots — Fulham, Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Preston — would miss out on the chance to earn a Prem place in a Wembley play-off final.
There would then also be no chance for Championship clubs to earn promotion through the play-offs in the following season.
The Premier League has had a 20-team format since 1995.
From 1992 — the inaugural Premier League season — to 1995 there were 22 teams.
League chiefs recognise the provisional restart date at the beginning of next month is unlikely to be met with Government health experts suggesting the peak of the virus might be as far as 14 weeks away.
Barber added: “It is hard to imagine we will be playing a Premier League game in two or three weeks.
“But there would still be a number of issues if we decided to go along with this plan.
“This includes the status of teams currently in the play-offs, qualification for European places and who would win the Prem title.
“I would feel for those teams in the Championship who did not get the chance of the play-offs.
“But we are in an unprecedented time and may need an unprecedented solution to these problems.
“If we delay too long, we would impact on other seasons as well.
“We will get to a point where we have to be pragmatic, sensible and ask everyone for their understanding and cooperation.
“But the most important thing in all of this is that we put people’s health first, and not rely on emergency services to attend stadiums behind closed doors when they could be needed elsewhere in the community.”
An extra issue, even if the season can restart and be played to a summer finish, is players being out of contract.
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Barber explained: “A number of contracts will expire on June 30 and if we do extend the season then there would be issues about squad make-up and transfers.
“There are so many implications to anything we decide to do.
“Maybe we will get to a point where we have to be pragmatic and then ask people to understand the situation and why we have had to make these decisions.”