The Premier League are not likely to go with a bigger league next season as Leeds United and West Brom wait to see what will happen to their promotion push.
As we know, football has been halted for over seven weeks now, with Albion’s last game a 0-0 draw at Swansea on March 7. Since then, there has been plenty of speculation about what comes next, with the EFL initially claiming that they could finish the season in 56 days and they would look to do that in June. However, it was then suggested yesterday that the Football League is ‘unlikely’ to be completed and further reports emerged stating that a 22 or 23 team league could happen – meaning the Baggies went up.
Yet, speaking to TalkSPORT as quoted by MOT Leeds News, journalist Martin Lipton made it clear that he doesn’t think a bigger Premier League will happen as it would need to be voted through by a majority of the clubs.
“It seems increasingly likely that Leagues One and Two won’t finish and that should come to a head soon. The idea of three up and none down is really unwieldy. The Premier League rulebooks say that the league will contain no more than 20 clubs.
“14 clubs would have to vote for the changes… that’s not going to happen. The big six think they play too many games already.”
Will West Brom be in the Premier League next season?
Yes
No
Of course, given the unprecedented situation it may be possible to change the rules given the circumstances. Either way, Albion will hope that their excellent work this season doesn’t count for nothing, with Slaven Bilic’s side six points clear of third-placed Fulham with just nine games to play.
The main priority remains to finish the season though and if the Premier League was played to a finish it would at least ensure three teams were relegated, meaning the Championship could follow UEFA’s guidelines by using points per game when deciding promotion, which would see Albion go up.
