The Premier League has an obligation to the EFL, just like MLS has an obligation to the rest of the US Soccer ecosystem
The Big Six behave like MLS- and push the limits of what they can get away with under the cultural norms in Britain
The Premier League, like MLS, in the United States has a responsibility to the rest of the English football ecosystem. As of this morning, the Prem is not going forward with a new plan to help financially support the rest of football in England, because of the objection of the biggest clubs. This is a big club problem more than an overall Premier League problem, as most of the other 14 clubs currently in the division know what it's like not to be rolling in revenue.l
While the fact that England has a Promotion and Relegation is often cited by those who criticize MLS for its business practices while defending or even supporting the Premier League, the chief organizing principles of this sport are openness and solidarity. On this front the Premier LEague is increasingly distant from the rest of English football and is FAILING the game in the country it calls home (though increasingly the Prem likes to represent itself more as a global product than an English one). The Premier League’s increasing arrogance has been aided by an FA that has enabled the league for 32 years since they broke off the Football League.
In fairness, It can be argued that through transfer fees and solidarity payments the Premier League meets some obligations to the lower leagues that MLS does not in the US. But the Prem does not share the revenue it generates downward the way top flight leagues in Spain and Germany do to just name two more prominent examples.
So while I concede the Premier League is not as egregious as MLS in its desire to cut off the rest of the football ecosystem in its country, it gets away with as much as the culture in the UK will allow it to - just as MLS does the same in the United States, where billionaires are viewed in awe and class consciousness is gradually disappearing. The UK is a fairly class-conscious society and one where big money is viewed with suspicion, so the Premier League culturally can get away with less than MLS.
In fact, as more foreign owners (especially Americans) have bought elite Premier League clubs, the sense of a top flight league more akin to the NFL than the Bundesliga or Ligue Un has taken hold. Premier League promotions often ignore lower divisions or even its own clubs pre-1992 history. Additionally, the Premier League has become more greedy, with its top clubs using various mechanisms to propose revenue splits that favor them, over even the other clubs in the division.
Make no mistake about it, a key reason the Premier League isn’t Serie A, where top flight clubs run into massive financial difficulties over and over is the sort of revenue splits particularly with media and sponsorship that the league has. But as time has gone on, the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Spurs and Chelsea have devised new ways to maximize their own revenues while not showing any sort of concern or solidarity for those clubs below them even in the same area (the example of Bury comes to mind with this and the two giant Manchester clubs).
This is so naive as many who staff the big clubs learned how to be executives, managers, backroom and technical staff down the pyramid. A good chunk of internationals that fill national team squads throughout Europe and the rest of the world came out of the lower divisions - heck in some major tournaments, the EFL Championship is one of the most represented leagues.
Make no mistake about it - the Premier League’s “Big Six” are greedy and selfish. It’s time for football to take a stand against them and force them to do the right thing.
Thank God for someone like Gary Neville. Like him or not, he is the apokesmen for the supporters in someways. Him being from Salford, and having that working class background and trade union Manchester-infused institutional memory has held the Premier League to account. We should rue the day that his ilk leave the broadcast booth.