Scrapping Premier League Relegation Would Be Stupidity

Who can remember the 2007/08 season? Well done to those of you who are nodding, holding their hands up or saying of ‘course I bloody do.’ That season of course Manchester United won the Premier League and Champions League. But I suspect you already knew that didn’t you?

But something else happened that year, something that in many ways was sad, slightly humours at times and embarrassing for the Premier League. That something was Derby County’s humiliating relegation which only saw them pick up a paltry 11 points only winning one game (against Newcastle at home) all season.

Derby laughed at all season, sadly for their passionate fans went down as the worst Premier League team in history. Now let’s imagine that at the end of that season, a scenario where they were not relegated but were kept in the League for another season. That would be wrong wouldn’t it?

Well a scenario like that could happen if relegation would be scrapped from the Premier League if a crazy idea backed by some of the foreign owners in the league were to get the unlikely go-ahead. The idea which has been brought to public attention by the League Managers Association (LMA) chief Richard Bevan has sparked outrage across the country.

Whilst it’s understandable that owners of football clubs want to protect their assets and be in as good a position as they can be, the idea of the Premier League, the world’s so-called best league becoming a glorified franchise division would completely ruin what is great about not only it but English football overall.

It’s been a delight in the last decade to have seen how clubs such as Hull City, Stoke City and Swansea City climb the divisions to become top-flight clubs. Despite the fact that only a handful of clubs really can win the Premier League, it’s the league that every team in England wants to be a part of and it’s where legends and memories are made.

It could well be argued that the battle for relegation is just as exciting (if not better) than the battle to win the Premier League. After all only a handful of clubs really can say that they can challenge for the league title at the start of the season whilst more than half of clubs know that they have a battle to avoid dropping down to the Championship.

Thankfully this idea would need backing from the majority of the Premier League clubs and the Football Association (FA) if it were to go ahead. Wigan’s outspoken owner Dave Whelan had his say on this debate earlier this week if the idea to scrap relegation was put into place:

"If it was to happen I would resign Wigan from the Premier League and go back and play in the Football League," the Wigan chairman told talkSPORT.

"It's the most stupid suggestion I've ever heard in my life”.

Never has a truer word been spoken!

Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87