[Exile on Spencer St]

Can’t argue with much of what AH says.
Relevant to AH’s argument is a good article in yesterday’s (allegedly) Independent newspaper by Tim Wigmore.
He suggests that the big ‘six’ in the PL are not football clubs as we’d understand it, but businesses, run by and for businessmen. And what those big business investors fear more than anything is uncertainty which, in football, means relegation.
So they are slowly, inevitably, moving towards the day when there will be no promotion or relegation to or from the ‘top’ league. The template is US franchised sport. In many cases it’s the same business investors (e.g. CVC) who proposing a ‘closed shop’ for Rugby Union’s Premiership.
These businesses don’t care if they strangle the grassroots of the sport they purport to support, if there’s no one playing in lower leagues or in the parks. Just as long as enough suckers around the world renew their TV subscriptions and keep buying those £89 polyester Barca shirts.