This column was going to be about the prospect of relegation from the Premier League being abolished. But, as proposals with potentially disastrous affects for the lower leagues are running at a rate of two-a-week, we’ve been overtaken by events.
Football League clubs voted to adopt the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) for youth development. They may have been persuaded in part by the Premier League’s threat to withhold funding to the lower leagues.
The battle lines were drawn back in February when the Premier League tried to blame the gulf between Barcelona and the rest of European club football on the differences in rules over youth coaching.
‘They [Barca] can pool young talent nationally,’ moaned chief executive Richard Scudamore . ‘We’ve made it very easy for managers to resource from abroad,’ warned the League’s head of youth, Jed Roddy.
The case was clear; allow Premier League clubs more access to more young British players at less expense and they won’t need to stuff their academies with teenage imports. And they might beat Barcelona. And, hey, we can’t promise anything but it might make the England team a bit less rubbish as well. Fair enough. The solution, however, appears anything but fair.
By adopting EPPP, Football League clubs have voted to replace the existing system of tribunal-set transfer fees with a sliding scale of compensation for any player poached by the big boys. While there may be some good things in the plan, much of it is undone by this. The payment scale doesn’t take into account how good a prospect is – although if they play regularly at the higher level, their development club can expect further reward.
Academies will be divided into one of four categories and, though there is nothing to stop small clubs gaining ‘Cat 1’ status, it seems unlikely it would be financially viable under the new compensation structures –money begets money and all that.
Back in February, Scudamore called EPPP ‘a supertanker that’s very difficult to stop’. Its adoption merited just six lines on the Football League website. Its impact will be bigger.
