'Sugar-coated cyanide pill': Fans fume as Premier League holds emergency meeting on power-grab led by US-owned Liverpool & Man Utd

Premier League clubs are holding an emergency meeting to discuss ‘Project Big Picture’ on Wednesday after the Football Supporters’ Association branded the proposals a “sugar-coated cyanide pill.”

Clubs have reportedly arranged an online meeting for Wednesday morning to discuss the proposals for the first time since they were published on Sunday.

The proposals were initiated by Liverpool’s American owner John W. Henry and backed by Manchester United chairman Joel Glazer.

‘Project Big Picture’ includes plans to hand the English Football League a £250 million ($325 million) rescue package as clubs struggle amid the pandemic, plus a 25 percent slice of the Premier League’s annual revenue.

The Premier League would also be reduced to 18 teams and the Carabao Cup and Community Shield got rid of.

What’s more, Premier League voting power would be concentrated solely with the ‘Big Six’ - United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City - and with three other clubs, namely West Ham United, Southampton and Everton.

The FSA released a strongly worded statement on the proposals on Tuesday, describing them as an “absolute disaster.”

“The insatiable greed of a small handful of billionaire owners cannot be allowed to determine the structure of football in this country,” it said.

“As six clubs can set the rules, who could stop them ending relegation from the Premier League and creating a franchise system like they have in US sports? No one. 

“Who could stop them from rewriting the rules in a few years so that the top six keep all the media money? No one. 

“Who could stop them cutting funding entirely to the EFL or grassroots football? No one.”

The offer of an immediate cash injection into the EFL is among the positive aspects of the project, but the FSA warned it could be a “sugar-coated cyanide pill” given the conditions it would come with.

“Since six billionaire club owners can change the rules of the game at any time they like, and would control almost all of the revenue, there is no guarantee that they won’t pull up the drawbridge and cut funding entirely to the EFL, as it signed its own death warrant.”

Despite their clubs standing to benefit the most from the proposals, the Supporters Trusts of the ‘Big Six’ issued a joint statement on the matter as they too condemned the idea of concentrating all the power at the top of the Premier League.

At least eight top-flight clubs are said to be against the project, with the Daily Mail naming six of them: Brighton & Hove Albion, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion. 

West Ham - despite being one of the chosen three to retain voting rights as one of the current longest-serving members of the division - are reportedly“very much against” them too.

Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani also appears to hold a similar view, as he retweeted an interview in which sports journalist Henry Winter condemned the US-led project and said: “The sport belongs to the people, not to someone in Boston and the Everglades.”

Under current rules, every Premier League club has one vote, with a majority of 14 needed for a motion to pass.