How many Premier League Chairmen does it take to change a lightbulb? Apparently, it only takes fourteen out of twenty.

Phil Gartside's latest proposal to makeover the Premier League, the most popular and financially robust competition in the world at the moment, has now done the rounds, everyone has had a say, and the verdict seems to be that it's not a good idea. I'd go a bit further; Gartside's plan is dangerously stupid.

Gartside himself is not stupid. He is highly regarded by his peers and has proven himself to be quite a good figurehead for the club as they looked to establish themselves in the Premier League over the last ten years. He is an FA Board member, the shadowy twelve-man panel that chose Sven and McClaren as successive England managers, and an executive director of Wembley Stadium.

Just forget for a second that the combination of England missing the European Championships, and the subsequent loss of revenue, and the massive debt incurred in the construction of the New Wembley, has effectively shelved plans for a Clairefontaine-esque Centre of Excellence. Phil Gartside wouldn't be voted to these positions unless he was good at what he does and he cares deeply about the state of the game.

Unfortunately, his latest proposal only illustrates how completely divorced the executives at the very top of the game in this country have become from the people who pay to attend games.

It's the same idea that was put forward by Man City Megalomaniac Garry Cook, to seal off the Premier League from the brutal financial realities of the Football League, and share the gold between the teams, á la the NFL. It's the bastard sibling of Premier League Chairman Richard Scudamore's distasteful 39th Game idea. It's all about the money, and has nothing to do with the fans, which sounds like a dangerous proposition to me.

The people in charge of football clubs now are professional businessmen, and they want to run their clubs like proper businesses. And while it's nice to sell out and have a packed house, the Garry Cooks and Phil Garside’s of this world are wondering how they can best cash in on the billion people in China who haven't got a replica shirt yet.

My brother is surfing in South Africa right now, and he says every Man Utd game is shown live all over the country and everybody supports Man Utd. While it's nice selling 70,000 tickets a week, David Gill knows that there's more money to be made, and it has nothing to do with the fans that go through the turnstiles at Old Trafford.

What makes Gartside's idea stupid, as well as dangerous, is that he can't possibly have thought this through to its natural conclusion. If Scudamore and Garry Cook want to sell the product, the overseas TV packages, rather than tickets, why would Bolton necessarily be involved? If Scottish clubs can be invited into the competition, why not the most popular French or German clubs? Why not Real Madrid and Barcelona? What about a token Far East team? Why not?

Gartside sees a way to guarantee Bolton don't have to suffer the indignity of relegation. Maybe he's worried that if Bolton fell behind other mid-table clubs, even if only for a couple of years, the financial gap might be too big to ever make up.

Yeah? Maybe he should be making sure that Bolton Wanderers are being run properly, not incurring bad debts and overreaching financially which has already done for some of the oldest names in English football, like Leeds, Southampton and Leicester.

No club is too big to go down. That's the way it should be. If you need proof, just look at Newcastle. Fans across the world are transfixed at the moment, staring in bemusement and horror as one of the biggest and proudest teams in the country is careening towards Premier League oblivion. Setanta have already picked up two of Newcastle's remaining four fixtures, and if there is even a sleight chance of survival on the last weekend against Aston Villa, expect that one to be shown too.

Eliminating a competitive element like promotion and relegation from the Premier League would severely impact the interest in the Premier League. Just this season, we would have missed out on the Newcastle story, the disintegration of North East football in general and the inspiring story going on at Stoke. Stoke City probably didn't feature in Gartside's Fantasy Football at the start of the season, yet with four games left, Bolton are still looking up at them. And Stoke have been selling The Britannia out every week, unlike The Reebok.

Indeed Gartside's plan would discriminate against ambitious clubs that spend money wisely and plan carefully, all to ensure the ongoing incompetence that currently exists at the top of football.

Everyone knows that the TV money is propping up the clubs at the top of English football. The only way that will change is if smart, well-run clubs can infiltrate the monopoly Gartside is trying to guard, and are able to do more with less.

Survival of the Fittest. Maybe Gartside should ensure that Bolton Wanderers are lean enough to keep up with the competition.