Premier League will not consider 18 team league

The effect on the revenue is obvious, but I say the real reason is the insistence in all things, not just football, to hold on to tradition, even when reason and logic indicate otherwise. With the British, this runs in the very subconscious, and that is not meant as a note of dsapproval, only one stating a fact. In addition to there being 20 teams in the PL instead of 18 teams, at most, in the top divisions elsewhere, you have a second knock-out competition. For a starter, exclude teams that have qualified for either the CL or Europa Cup from that: for them, it will be just a switch of the source of revenue from the Carling Cup to either. The Italians use all but the last stages of the Coppa Italia as a warm-up before the the season starts. All over Europe, players- and fans, too! - are allowed family breaks at Christmas and Easter. In England you have the Christmas programme instead, matches with a fair risk of being snowed off anyway, then disruption of the league table follows along with fixture congestion for a good two months thereafter. Add to that replays in both Cup competitions and the anomaly of the situation becomes inevitable: round matches of the FA cup and replays from an earlier round and from the Carling Cup played on the same weekend. Retain the oldest Cup competition in the world by all means, but do away with replays altogether: the times can no longer accomodate them. The difficulties of accomodating tradition itself, however, are far greater, for one has then to set about the absurd task of somehow fitting in the impractical with the practical. All tradition originally comes along with practicality, if not out of it: when the laws of the game were set forth, for one instance, it was conceived of as nothing more than just that, so the referee's decision was final. Now football is big business, and it is truly absurd that an official's 'human error' can cost a club millions.

I expected this, Wolf Man, and more will be coming, I am sure. Money is what it is all about; I started off and concluded with that. But why England? It is because there the matter is compounded by the extraordinary number of matches that are played, and the surplus, when compared with other countries, is because of tradition. You mention the formation of the PL as an illustration of a break with tradition. What is in a name. Wolf Man? Call the top English football league Premier League, Division One, Barclays.....whatever. The fact is that overall too many domestic matches are played in England. No wonder that is difficult to fit in the number of UEFA and FIFA match days. Are UEFA and FIFA seriously expected to streamline Europe and the world to fit one country?

I am nearly as sure as you are that the PL will see no decrease in the number of teams, fortunately for the home of football and for the world, and on the financial aspect and impact a change would bring we are agreed all along: too much money involved - and Wolves would struggle even more to survive, if I may be permitted this narrow perspective as an aside. The weight of the problem lies elsewhere, as I have tried to illustrate and you have chosen to overlook. Scudamore: Uefa and Fifa the culprits. ?? Try to fit that in with my comment, particularly the last half. I was tempted to bring my last question to its logical conclusion - it hangs in the air - but had mercy and refrained.