English Football League to ask for £750m from Premier League

The English Football League is to approach the Premier League about doubling what it currently receives from England’s top-flight.

Former sports minister Tracey Crouch is leading a fan-led review into football and it is due to be released in the coming weeks and one talking point is the disparity amongst England’s 92 professional teams.

A story from the DailyMail says that the EFL will ask for £750m a year for its three divisions which includes 72 clubs.

The EFL are responsible for the Championship to the League Two, the three professional leagues below the top tier.

They believe that now is the time to bring a fairer balance to English football given the gulf in quality between the top 20 clubs in the Premier League and the clubs outside of this.

This can be linked to sides such as Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and AFC Bournemouth, all clubs who have received parachute payments, being at the high-end of the table each season.

Norwich City, a yo-yo club in recent years have benefitted from brief stays in the league before being relegated, coming up stronger with a healthier profit after player sales and money in television revenue.

Meanwhile clubs such as Bury and Macclesfield have fallen out of the Football League owing to off-the-field financial issues.

Another team that has suffered in recent times are Bristol City’s league rivals Derby County, who recently entered administration.

Further on in the report, an EFL CEO said to the Mail: ‘It is about fairness. About being fair to the pyramid. Premier League clubs can still be very competitive, high performing and have the best talent in the world.

‘But it would make a lot of clubs more sustainable. The question is, do the government and Premier League care enough about that to make that change.’

Parachute and solidtary payments to EFL clubs come to about £350m but newer plans would see that increased by £400m, which would aim to bring more sufficiency amongst clubs.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier League clubs garnered a reported £5.9 BN in revenue, whilst the Championship isn’t even half of that, accumulating just £785m.

For clubs in League One and Two, the findings are that they would receive up to an additional £2m, which would give them a chance to live closer to their means. It has been proposed that teams would be put under spending restrictions, such as only being allowed to spend 60 percent of revenue on wages.

How could this benefit Bristol City and Rovers?

The city of Bristol is still yet to have a team in the Premier League and the last time top-flight football was played in the City was back in 1979, when City were relegated.

Since then, both teams have been up and down the pyramid structure with multiple promotions and relegations.

The closest City got to achieving their dream was losing the play-off final to Hull City back in 2008.

Part of Nigel Pearson’s side’s problem is that a majority of teams in the Championship have had experience of playing in the Premier League.

Clubs benefit from parachute payments which means they can afford higher wages, as well as spend higher amounts on transfers.

For Rovers, whilst they’re in League Two, they won’t benefit as much from it but any additional money could bring some solidity to their finances.