Recently, a story came out about American owners in the English Premier League and how they may want to get rid of relegation. One anonymous source thought that one or two more American owners would cause a vote to create solid leagues that do not relegate or promote teams between themselves.
This got me thinking. First, are the Americans who own teams in this league that selfish that they would change a tradition that has been occurring since well before the formation of the EPL? Second, how would this change the competitiveness of the league? These are two scary questions that I am going to answer in honor of Halloween.
The idea that a few American owners would propose such a change is pretty huge. Relegation is the idea that the bottom three teams are demoted to the league below while the top three teams from that league are brought up to the EPL. The FA, which is in charge of the English soccer leagues, would have to decide who stays in which league. Furthermore, other incentives would be necessary to keep teams at the bottom of the table competitive at the end of the season. Usually, teams in the top half are still fighting for spots in European competitions, but with nothing available for the bottom half, competition may go stale.
Just because this is a foreign concept to US sports fans does not mean it is wrong or ineffective. In fact, relegation should be considered by leagues like MLB and the NBA to make every season even more exciting. Bottom feeders are encouraged to compete through the end of the season and lower league teams are encouraged to finish in the top three so they can face better competition the following season. There is no such thing as an easy game for any team. In fact, facing a team fighting relegation at the end of a season is just as dangerous as facing a team at the top.
Without the concept of relegation in the EPL and its associated leagues, English soccer would suffer immensely. Fewer players would be able to enjoy the spotlight of the Premier League because their teams would remain in lower leagues. Financially, teams could not afford to stay afloat if they did not receive the fiscal benefits of playing at a higher level. Teams in the bottom half would have nothing to really fight for and would suffer lower game energy and confidence. Pillow fight matches would mean lower fan attendance and those games would not be televised. League play would become stale and players would fight to transfer to top-flight teams. There would be no “middle class” of teams. Finally, the EPL would struggle financially from lack of table-wide competition and be forced to either shut down or have fewer teams.
Basically, getting rid of relegation would be the biggest buzzkill to English club soccer history. It would benefit us to consider relegation for American sports; the lack of an open mind to new ideas has become evident in professional sports leagues in this country with lockouts and rifts between owners and players. Instead of trying to imperialize other leagues around the world, we should be receptive to other ideas for keeping competition at its highest level. Viva la relegation!
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