Project Big Picture: Tony Evans on why Liverpool owner John Henry is driving radical change

Anyone who has spent any time around John W Henry or Rick Parry is unlikely to be surprised by Project Big Picture. Shaking up football’s finances has been on both men’s minds for a long time. The Revitalisation document laying out plans to overhaul the game’s economy has their fingerprints all over it.

Henry, Liverpool’s principal owner, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Fenway Sports Group acquiring the club on Thursday. Almost from the start, the American has believed that the economics of the game need restructuring. He has explored various plans over the years and a lot of thought has gone into this blueprint.

Parry was one of Henry’s sounding boards long before the 65-year-old became the chairman of the EFL last year. It was natural that the Boston-based billionaire would turn to Anfield’s former chief executive for help and advice. More important than the Liverpool connection, however, is that Parry was the man who wrote much of the Premier League’s rulebook. He was the first CEO of the restructured top flight in 1992.

The two men’s interests aligned more than ever this summer. Henry has become increasingly exasperated by the way English football operates. As early as 2012 he was expressing his frustration about the mindset of what he saw as the supporting cast in the Premier League – effectively every team outside the European places. The vast amounts of television money blunted the ambition of the vast majority of the division, he contended. The main aspiration for most clubs is to avoid relegation and pocket the broadcast riches. Most look downward in fear, rather than upward in hope.

The solution, Henry considered, was to get rid of parachute payments, which skew competition in the Championship, and give substantially more cash to the second tier. The trade-off, as Project Big Picture shows, is an 18-club Premier League. A 20-team division packed with dogged scrappers has a detrimental effect on the top-four’s Champions League campaigns. The workload is just too exacting for those with dreams of continental glory.

Meanwhile, Parry approached the EFL job aware that the spending levels of the Championship clubs in particular were untenable. In the 2018-19 season, second-tier teams collectively spent 107 per cent of their revenue on wages. That was unsustainable and Parry had plans in place to crack down on the wildly extravagant and also introduce a salary cap across the three lower leagues but then Covid-19 hit. The unforeseen pandemic has left many clubs deep in financial trouble.

When the game went into hiatus in March, there was a growing feeling of panic. For Parry it was an opportunity. Things could not carry on as before, he felt. The Coronavirus crisis gave everyone a wake-up call and the chance to plan a new way of doing things.

Project Big Picture is a radical solution to the game’s problems. It has the support of Manchester United and the other members of the Big Six are expected to endorse the idea. They share the feeling that their so-called peers are holding them back and are taking too large a proportion of the Premier League’s profits.

The majority of the 72 EFL clubs, many of whom are living in dread of an uncertain future, will subscribe to any programme that guarantees their continued viability. The £250 million upfront cash and the promise of 25 per cent of Premier League’s annual revenue will sway many doubters.

The other top-flight clubs are a different proposition. The Revitalisation document suggests a revolutionary change in the one-club, one-vote system. The Big Six, plus Everton, Southampton and West Ham United – a “long-term shareholder” group of nine - would control the decision-making, with half a dozen votes determining the direction of the division.

This, rather than changes to the size of the Premier League and tweaks to promotion and relegation, will be the cause of the most angst.

It would mean 11 clubs essentially accepting that they are disposable, well-paid extras in the elite clubs’ drama. Inequality has already been institutionalised but codifying it is a very different proposition.

This is a bold gambit by Henry and Parry. They are correct in one respect. English football requires a financial facelift. Whether this is the right plan is open to question.