RICHARD Scudamore insists there will never be a two-tier top flight while he is chief executive of the Premier League.

Scudamore, speaking at the All Party Parliamentary Football Group Inquiry into the Governance of English Football, was responding to Bolton chairman Phil Gartside calling for a restructuring that would see two leagues of 18 teams with the possible abolition of relegation.

“It would be attractive to some if the trap door was not there, especially if you are staring down it, but I’d say ‘not on my watch guv’nor’,” Scudamore said. “There are debates like this all the time, I know groups of Championship teams ringing each other and clubs at the bottom of the Premier League.

“They have these discussions about Premier League 1 and Premier League 2. I don’t think the discussion hurts or is unhealthy. Phil will acknowledge he is not expressing the view of the Premier League.

“Phil is entitled to his view but is not the current collective view of the Premier League.”

Scudamore also addressed the issue of salary caps and suggested they would be extremely problematic to implement.

“Salary caps are difficult when you have such a range of incomes,” he said. “It becomes very difficult to apply a salary cap, whether it is a fixed amount of money or percentage terms fixed to turnover.

“That would make us hugely uncompetitive with rest of Europe and the rest of the world.”