Quote Originally Posted by Toadstool View Post
The aspirations of the Championship clubs would be more than just stay in the PL, for example Norwich next season would think they have a chance of getting to Europe - not just fighting relegation or settling for mid table security.
Premier League teams from outside the so-called Big Six who have qualified for European competition during the last ten years:

Birmingham City, Burnley, Everton, Fulham, Hull City, Leicester City, Newcastle United, Southampton, Stoke City, Swansea City, West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers.

If clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Liverpool are no longer involved in the Champions League, it will no longer be the Champions League. It will be a pale shadow of the current competition and nothing more than a glorified version of the Europa League. Meanwhile, the Europa League itself will simply disappear due to a lack of funding. It would be totally unsustainable.

Broadcasters pay what they do currently for the Europa League safe in the knowledge that a few of the big boys will appear in the competition every season, either having had a poor domestic season previously or having been eliminated from the Champions League early.

This season's Europa League round of 16 contained no less than four clubs who are involved in the ESL - Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United and AC Milan. This is why the broadcasters are currently interested in the competition. Remove the biggest, best-supported clubs and the Europa League's value drops dramatically, as is the case with every competition that would be affected by the ESL.

The knock-on effects of this nonsense would be enormous and anyone who believes it would somehow be beneficial to anyone except the clubs who are involved in it is, in my opinion, deluded.