OWEN Coyle claims Premier League clubs would be “stupid” to back Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre’s radical plan to overhaul television rights.

After hearing his club used by Ayre as an example of why bigger clubs with greater global appeal should be allowed to negotiate their own foreign broadcast rights, the Wanderers boss is confident his proposals would never get the backing they would need to materialise.

“In the big scheme of things, the point he (Ayre) was trying to get to was hypothetical,” he said. “It will never happen because you need 14 teams out of 20 to vote for it.

“Maybe he was trying to make something to talk about when there wasn’t anything, I don’t know.

“Everyone has their ideas and he feels that Liverpool are the big attraction. You might look at some of the other elite clubs in the Premier League who might not think so.

“Just now, how Kenny has done and what he is building, we all want Liverpool to get back to the team and the power they were. But as regards to what they are trying to create, you need 14 teams out of 20 to vote for that, and I think a lot of the clubs in the league are a lot of things, but they are not stupid.”

Asked if he had considered it a slight to have been name-checked by Ayre, Coyle insisted he was not prepared to enter into a public argument with the Anfield chief.

“He could have used any number of teams,” he said. “Whether it was a slip of the tongue, I’m not sure.

“Whether he feels in retrospect he shouldn’t have said it, is up to him.

“The bottom line is that we have the best product in the entire world and it’s made up of 20 teams.

“I don’t need to get caught up in a slanging match with someone I don’t know.”