The top clubs in England are struggling, and yet this is one of the most exciting Premier League seasons in recent memory. So much entertainment and so much drama with so few familiar names — it’s understandable why the big teams are getting nervous.

But if recent reports are anything to go by, that nervousness isn’t translating into better transfers or the right staff, it’s turning teams towards tricks to maintain unearned dominance.

While Leicester City and Tottenham have been busy clawing away points, the EPL’s traditional top five clubs — Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool — have been meeting to discuss the possibility of creating a new European competition (or renegotiating the current one) that would ensure their participation at the expense of the up-and-comers.

According to the Guardians, among the ideas up for debate would be a two-tiered system that would guarantee annual entrance for the biggest teams in Europe while forcing the smaller ones to qualify. This is sure to be rather tempting for the likes of United and Liverpool, who have failed to fill their point quotas and hit the top four regularly the last few seasons. And with Chelsea likely to miss out this year and Arsenal and City hitting worrying skids the last few weeks, it’s easy to understand what would bring representatives to London to at least entertain the idea.

But entertain it they should not. The lesson from this season shouldn’t be one of fear for the big teams, but one of exuberance for midlevel strivers. It is the stuff of Hollywood dreams to see Leicester at the top of the league and always also-ran Tottenham running behind. It speaks to the heart of what sport is, and that a clever manager and the right combination of players can beat anyone. Leicester have earned the right to play with the best, and backroom meetings is not the way for struggling top teams to take back a piece of the glory.

The great attraction of the best competitions in soccer, whether the Champions League or the FA Cup, remains the tantalizing dream that any team could win it. Sure, most years it is one of the bigger teams, but every once in a while, Wigan or Portsmouth pulls off a shock.

In Europe, it will almost always be Barcelona or Bayern Munich hoisting the trophy these days, but perhaps next year it will be Ajax or Porto, or even the mighty Foxes themselves. The potential for that rare moment of achievement is what brings fans to the stadiums and makes them turn on the TV. It is also what makes the dominance of the great teams so impressive.

Giving the big clubs with big money an even bigger boost would therefore be not just unsportsmanlike, it would be a disincentive to even watch. English clubs worried about their fortunes and opportunities in a more intense league need to work on fixing up their own houses, instead of looking to evict all the new competition from the neighborhood.