Premier League, EFL and FA chiefs to be grilled by MPs over Project Big Picture and bailout impasse
MPs have demanded to grill Premier League, English Football League and Football Association chiefs over Project Big Picture.
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee wants to quiz Richard Masters, Rick Parry and Greg Clarke next week.
The session is focused on a failure to agree a rescue package for clubs outside the Premier League who are struggling during the pandemic.
But questions will also be posed on Project Big Picture, the controversial plans to overhaul English football voted down last month.
“Many of our football clubs are already facing a precarious future yet they are being put at further risk because the football authorities who should be showing real leadership have reached a place of stalemate,” said DCMS committee chair Julian Knight MP.
“The government has made it clear that it won’t step in. A deal must be reached before it’s too late, the loss of any club will leave a gaping hole in its community.
“We’re calling in football chiefs next week to put their case in public in an attempt to break the deadlock between the Premier League and EFL, it cannot go on.”
What did Project Big Picture propose?
A £250m advance for lower league teams, and a pledge that they would receive a greater share of Premier League revenue, was part of Project Big Picture.
The proposals also threatened to hand England’s six most powerful club veto on all major decisions, however, and was firmly rejected in a vote of top-flight chairmen.
The select committee session promises to shed light on exactly who knew what and when about Project Big Picture.
Details of the proposals only became public last month and, at first, it appeared they had been cooked up by EFL boss Parry, Manchester United and Liverpool.
But Clarke has since been forced to deny he had a more central role in talks. Figures at the Premier League also saw the proposals before they were leaked.
The session is part of a wider inquiry into sport and its relationship with the community.