The prospect of Leicester City falling back into the Championship alongside Ipswich and Southampton would be a “significant matter” for the Premier League to consider, the division’s chief football officer has said.
City are in the battle at the bottom alongside the Tractor Boys and the Saints, both of whom they were promoted alongside last May.
If all three were to be relegated, it would be the second straight year in which the promoted clubs have gone straight back down.
While it would then only be the third time in the Premier League’s 33-year history that it had happened, a growing trend of promoted sides struggling is a cause for concern for the competitiveness of the Premier League.
The gulf between the top and the bottom is growing, and last season Nottingham Forest stayed up on 32 points, the lowest tally of any surviving club.
“That's a significant matter,” the Premier League’s chief football officer Tony Scholes told Sky Sports last week.
“We keep a close eye on that. The quality of this league is just unbelievable. Clubs coming up out of the Championship into this league do find it incredibly difficult. We see that.
“Ipswich, for example, have invested a lot of money this year. Hopefully they're there, they've got a chance of staying up, but right now they're in a difficult position.
“It is difficult to break in. But no, it would not be good for the league if the three who are coming up went back down again year on year.”
Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton were the trio to go straight back down last season, with the former two now competing for promotion again but with the Hatters at risk of a second successive demotion.
The first time it happened was in 1997-98, when Crystal Palace, Barnsley and Bolton all fell back down into the second tier.
