Dean Smith Aston Villa
Dean Smith has poked fun at the lucrative breakaway plan to form a brand-new 18-team European Premier League.
Dean Smith said: “Maybe next week they’ll be a World League, who knows? There seems to be a lot of conjecture and talk at the moment but the clubs who are supposedly meant to be involved haven’t come out and made any statements so I’d certainly like to hold fire as to what my thoughts are on it. The Premier League just in itself is the most-watched league, most-entertaining league in the world at the moment and everybody’s a little bit envious of the plaudits it gets and the viewing figures it gets. With all of that comes an awful lot of money as well. It’s a fantastic competition, one that I’ve only been in for a season and a bit but one that’s been very enjoyable and we’ve got a decent domestic structure. The big talk at the moment has actually been about supporting the clubs down below in the pyramid at the moment. It’s a great spectacle for everybody to see at the moment so why change?”
The likes of Manchester United and Liverpool have been touted as being among the first two clubs to get behind the ambitious project. The grand plan will supersede the Champions League and will comprise of the biggest European teams from across Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England. It’s understood the new competition would seriously downgrade the Premier League with the five big-hitting sides in England likely to prioritise that over the domestic Premier League campaign given its financial rewards. 
Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow has already attacked proposals for the European Premier League and accused clubs of “wanting to divide” the English game. Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham are also said to be candidates to join the tournament with a provisional start date of 2022 and one football industry figure told Sky the plot was “potentially the most important development in world club football for decades”.
