{"id":3129,"date":"2025-08-01T14:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/premier-league-ceo-richard-masters-says-top-flights-will-not-be-forced-on-18-teams\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T14:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:24:17","slug":"premier-league-ceo-richard-masters-says-top-flights-will-not-be-forced-on-18-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/premier-league-ceo-richard-masters-says-top-flights-will-not-be-forced-on-18-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier League CEO Richard Masters says top flights will not be &#8220;forced&#8221; on 18 teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body\">\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">Premier League CEO Richard Masters says that top English flights will not be cut to 20-18 clubs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">Concerns are growing about the busy football calendar highlighted at the FIFA Club World Cup this summer, which ended more than a month before the start of the 2025\/26 Premier League season.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">The world&#8217;s governing body FIFA is facing pressure on the number of matches at the top level, with the 2026 World Cup on the horizon of the US, Canada and Mexico.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">However, the Masters claimed that there was no change in the composition of the Premier League, with League One falling to 18 teams in 2023\/24.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we should be forced into that decision,&#8221; he told BBC Sports.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sacrificing domestic football, because of the growth of the game and the exciting competition that the club can join.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"organism-media-card\" class=\"relative block w-full text-left\">\n<div class=\"w-full\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"relative overflow-hidden h-full w-full\" data-testid=\"molecule-card-illustration\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-card-picture\" class=\"wrapper-16-9 relative\">\n<figure class=\"card-hover-zoom absolute h-full w-full\">\n<div class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" data-testid=\"blurry-image-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-transparent h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/imgresizer.tntsports.io\/unsafe\/1200x0\/filters:format(jpeg)\/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io\/2025\/07\/30\/image-d13bd3d9-d15e-4da2-9e03-a7f3f80d5920-85-2560-1440.jpeg\" alt=\"photograph\" data-testid=\"image-high-res\"\/><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-onLight-02 py-3 pr-3\" data-testid=\"media-card-caption\">\n<p class=\"caption-2\">&#8220;There are no stragglers in this group anymore&#8221; &#8211; a show about a ferocious prospect about a man<\/p>\n<p class=\"caption-2\">Video Credits: SNTV<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Asked about the impact of the FIFA Club&#8217;s World Cup, Masters said, &#8220;The ju umpire has come out about the competitiveness of formatting and scheduling and underlying economics, but it&#8217;s not my job to assess the success of the Club World Cup and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>\u201cIt is my job to assess whether these new sports will affect the national calendar and the national sports. There is one Premier League.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;Since 1994, the Premier League has been 380 games and 20 clubs. The shape hasn&#8217;t changed at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>\u201cNow we are beginning to redesign our domestic calendar at the altars of expansion in Europe and the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re asking players to play in more games. At the top of the game, we need a proper dialogue between FIFA and all stakeholders about how these things go. It&#8217;s sadly missing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Club World Cup champion Chelsea and other England participants Manchester City demanded a delayed start to the Premier League season after being involved in the tournament, but were denied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>However, the Masters suggested that FIFA should consider the impact of new expansion competitions on domestic leagues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the butterfly impact of decisions beyond our influence by other football organizations that have a direct impact on the leagues in the country,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>\u201cIf the tournament ends in mid-July and you need to provide players with a three-week break, there will only be one week before the start of the season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t add up. It&#8217;s an unnecessary conflict with our own club. It&#8217;s not just people involved in the Club World Cup. It&#8217;s the club they play and we have to be fair to everyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">TNT Sports and Discovery+ including Premier League, Men&#8217;s and Women&#8217;s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/premier-league\/2025-2026\/richard-masters-premier-league-reduced-18-teams_sto23207503\/story.shtml\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Premier League CEO Richard Masters says that top English flights will not be cut to 20-18 clubs. Concerns are growing about the busy football calendar highlighted at the FIFA Club World Cup this summer, which ended more than a month before the start of the 2025\/26 Premier League season. The world&#8217;s governing body FIFA is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-english-premier-league"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Premier League CEO Richard Masters says top flights will not be &quot;forced&quot; on 18 teams - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/premier-league-ceo-richard-masters-says-top-flights-will-not-be-forced-on-18-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Premier League CEO Richard Masters says top flights will not be &quot;forced&quot; on 18 teams - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Premier League CEO Richard Masters says that top English flights will not be cut to 20-18 clubs. 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