English Premier League rejects Manchester United, Liverpool's reform plan

Less than a week after the owners of Manchester United and Liverpool shocked English soccer’s leagues, clubs and fans with reform proposals that would have led to the biggest changes in the sport in a generation, their big idea has been unanimously rejected.

For now.

At an emergency meeting of the Premier League’s 20 clubs Wednesday, the ideas for remaking English soccer that were brought forward by United and Liverpool, England’s two most successful clubs — including reducing the size of the Premier League to 18 teams from 20 and handing more power to the country’s richest teams — were quickly shot down.

The plans would have required the backing of 14 teams to pass, a figure that looked unlikely almost as soon as details of the project leaked on Sunday. The Premier League said on Wednesday that its members had agreed unanimously that the proposal “will not be endorsed or pursued.”

Neither United nor Liverpool has spoken publicly about the proposals, which were code-named Operation Big Picture. But they may be able to claim a Pyrrhic — and perhaps face-saving — victory after the Premier League said it would now speed up a more collaborative discussion to address the key points raised in the proposals.

The ideas, which also included changes to prize money agreements as well as to the split of the television revenues that have made the Premier League the richest domestic soccer competition in the world, received vocal and widespread backing from owners of cash-strapped teams in the lower divisions, many struggling to stay afloat in closed stadiums during the pandemic.

But elsewhere, there had been a near-universal rejection of the plan and accusations of opportunism levelled at United, Liverpool and other members of the so-called Big Six clubs, a group of the richest teams in the league, who would have stood to gain most if the reforms were adopted.

Fan groups, the Premier League, England’s Football Association and even the British government, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, quickly aligned against the proposals.

“I think it was an acknowledgment in the room that English football’s model is a huge success, but it hasn’t been reviewed or modernized for a long time, and so perhaps there has been some systemic issues built up that need dealing with,” the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, told reporters after presiding over Wednesday’s meeting with club officials.