Premier League special: Season preview, Masters comes out against overseas games, no EFL deal

Huzzah and welcome back, fully, to football. With La Liga and the Premier League getting going tonight, that’s pretty much everybody back in business and there are now about two or three weeks maximum without football until June 2027. Strap in.

This time last year as the season got underway, it felt like a campaign that would be defined by Manchester City’s 130 charges verdict (then described as 115).

We are closer to a verdict, you would hope, but the fact that so long has passed and we still are none the wiser underlines just how complex the case is (and how careful the Premier League needs to be about not making any mistake, however tiny).

You’d imagine that it will, at some point, arrive though. One legal mind consulted by FootBiz suggested that the drawn-out nature of the denouement suggested the two sides may well be negotiating a settlement (thus sparing us all the prolonged agony of an appeal) while another felt it was probably just as likely to be everyone making sure their t’s were crossed and i’s dotted.

It will, undoubtedly, be one of the stories that hangs over — and defines — this season though. A season which could be Pep Guardiola’s last in Manchester (and in club management) if you listen to those in his entourage.

Manchester City were, of course, miles off the title last year and the team that vanquished them has doubled down over the summer, adding Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike. When they inevitably add Alexander Isak to that list, they will have spent around £300m on forward players alone. Liverpool want it all.

And yet the huge unknown is how this team — and this club — will deal with grief. Grief is an emotion that affects people in different ways, it can hit at different speeds and with varying levels of profundity from a quivering lip to a feeling of utter drowning, helpless and forlorn. For some, throwing themselves into a relentless season of elite football with its Tuesday-Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday cadence will be the distraction they need and for others, it will all be too much.

In one sense, the special circumstances surrounding their title defence mean that Liverpool will be excused by all for any perceived underperformance. But it won’t stop the chasing pack from capitalising.

Arsenal’s reinforcements don’t so much betray their desperation to win the title as shout it from the rooftops. They have the best chance they’ve had in a while. Chelsea are world club champions, back in the Champions League and could possibly challenge atop the Premier League if they can put the pieces together consistently.

The next tier down will likely take a step back, Newcastle moreso than Aston Villa. Nottingham Forest have bought well, but will be stretched by a continental campaign. No English club has won more trophies than Crystal Palace this year but they are about to lose key talent, and also face the scheduling issues associated with Conference League play. Oliver Glasner’s coaching stock will continue to soar, however.

Brighton will benefit the most from not playing in Europe and could shock some people. Bournemouth’s exodus has filled the coffers but will set them back a little on the field. They seem to be safe enough in mid-table, with Fulham and probably Manchester United. If Ruben Amorim delivers on his promise, they will compete for European football. Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League commitments mean their best case might be the same.

Everton and West Ham have too much, surely, to be dragged into a relegation battle but don’t appear to have much hope of punching higher.

Then you have a relegation battle. Leeds United and Sunderland have a chance of getting out of it, while Wolves and Brentford will have to fight hard to stay clear of it. Brentford’s tumultuous off-season puts them in the gravest danger they’ve known for a while, and then there’s Burnley, who will finish 20th. Sorry to all Burnley fans.

There we go, season preview done. If 50% of that is correct I’ll be delighted.

Table of Contents

• PL opposes overseas games

• Trivia question

• Chelsea draw another blank

• Expect penalties

• PL to trial ref cam

• Row over ‘new deal’ offer

• Other pre-season predictions 

And if you hadn’t clocked it yet, we return today to our twice-weekly in-season cadence.

More news next week…

PL opposes overseas games

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has reaffirmed his opposition to staging competitive matches overseas ahead of the start of the new season.

La Liga and Italian Serie A are attempting to move league games to the United States and Australia respectively this season, pending approval from FIFA, but Masters insists the Premier League will not follow their lead on the grounds that the competition is already a global league.

“Whether [new proposals to play Spanish and Italian matches overseas] will actually happen hasn't changed our view about matches abroad," Masters said. "We did look at the 39th game way back when, with lots of controversy. Our objective at the time was to help grow the Premier League around the world.

“But we've been able to do that through different means, and the Premier League is a genuinely global league. There are billions of people who will be tuning in over the course of the next the next nine months to watch Premier League action. So we've achieved that objective by different means, and that necessity has dissipated."

The Spanish Football Federation this week approved a request from Villarreal and Barcelona to play their scheduled match just before Christmas in Miami, while AC Milan and Como's plan to play a Serie A match in Australia in February has been endorsed by the Italian Football Federation.

Barca’s rivals Real Madrid also came out with a statement opposing La Liga’s plans.

Trivia question

Which football club has the second-highest naming rights deal in all of world sport?

Clue: the stadium capacity is just 30,210

(Answer at the bottom of the newsletter)¹  

Chelsea draw another blank

Chelsea will begin the season without a shirt sponsor for the third successive year when they welcome Crystal Palace to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

FootBiz has been told that Chelsea are requesting £300 million over five years from potential sponsors, who have yet to agree to their asking price.

Chelsea were asking for around £40m-a-year from shirt sponsors last summer and failed to reach an agreement, but despite this have returned to the market with even greater confidence after winning the Club World Cup this summer. In addition to the club’s increased global status as world champions, Chelsea’s revenue needs are less pressing, as the £85m they received in prize money from FIFA has removed their PSR problems.

Chelsea’s demands would put them towards the top of the Premier League’s shirt sponsorship table, which is currently headed by Manchester City’s £67.5m deal with Etihad – a related-party deal – and Manchester United’s £60m annual contract with Snapdragon.

Qatar Airways held talks with Chelsea over a shirt sponsorship deal last season, but were unable to agree on price.

After sporting a blank shirt for the vast majority of the season, Dubai-based property company DAMAC became Chelsea’s sponsor in May as part of their deal as official property partner. AI company Infinite Athlete had done a similar short-term deal in the latter half of the 2023/24 season before switching to a sleeve sponsorship. 

Chelsea’s squad have donated a proportion of their Club World Cup bonuses to the families of Diogo Jota and André Silva. The Times reported yesterday that the club allocated £11.4m of their £85m prize money to player bonuses, which a percentage of that handed over to Jota’s family following the car crash which killed the brothers last month. Chelsea forward Pedro Neto was particularly close to Jota having played with him at Wolves.

Expect penalties

Premier League referees have been instructed to clamp down on players holding at free kicks and corners this season. Incidents in which players hold opponents with both arms rather than challenging for the ball will result in the awarding of fouls, leading to a penalty for offences inside the area.

The tough new line on holding follows feedback from clubs who believe that referees have been too lenient in this area in recent seasons. Referees have also been told to tighten up on simulation, particularly when players exaggerate the impact of contact.

PL to trial ref cam

The Premier League will test Ref Cams in selected matches during its ­opening round of fixtures with a view to making the new technology a permanent feature of live TV games for the rest of the season, according to The Guardian. 

The trial will last six weeks, during which players, clubs and broadcasters will be asked to provide feedback, with a ­decision on whether to introduce Ref Cams permanently to be made at the end of next month.

During the trial no audio will be supplied with the Ref Cam replays, although this could be introduced at a later date if clubs agree. FIFA trialled Ref Cams at the Club World Cup in the US this summer, after which the chair of its ­refereeing committee, Pierluigi Collina, said the experiment had gone “beyond expectations”.

Row over ‘new deal’ offer

The Premier League and EFL are at loggerheads once again over whether the top-flight have made an offer over a new financial settlement for the lower divisions.

In a speech delivered in the House of Lord’s on 15 July, which was first reported by The Athletic yesterday, West Ham vice Chair Karren Brady claimed that the Premier League “made a credible and generous proposal to the EFL” in April, “but this has been rejected by the EFL board.”

EFL sources are privately rejecting Brady’s assertion, although one told FootBiz that the disagreement could be a matter of interpretation. While accepting that the EFL Board had talks with the Premier League over a financial package in April they are adamant that they did not receive a formal offer to take to their 72 clubs.

The Premier League and EFL have had on-off talks over a so-called New Deal for Football for five years, but have yet to reach an agreement and the matter could be passed on to the new Independent Football Regulator, which will be legally operational by November.

Other pre-season predictions 

 Just for fun:

• In Spain, Real Madrid will win La Liga after experiencing some early teething pains with Xabi Alonso. No idea how Atletico will be after their spending spree but I am starting to wonder how much longer Diego Simeone stick around. Marcus Rashford’s Barcelona displays will play him into the World Cup squad. Valencia are finally moving in the right direction.

• In Italy, Como could qualify for Europe. AC Milan would be my favourites to win the title.

• In the Championship, Ipswich should walk it but that assumes Kieran McKenna stays all season. All three promoted clubs will stay up.

• In UEFA competitions, Union Saint-Gilloise will surprise some people on their Champions League debut (Promise David is a star) while English teams will win the Champions League and Conference League.

1  Bayer Leverkusen! A reported $32.4m/year, per Sponsorlytix making it the second-highest deal in global sport, behind the LA Lakers’ Crypto.com Arena but ahead of SoFi Stadium in LA, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and the Spotify Camp Nou.