Half-a-million reasons not to restart League One season..
RESTARTING the League One season will cost Coventry City and their EFL rivals as much as £500,000 each, a leading football finance expert has told the Coventry Telegraph.
The Sky Blues learned on Thursday that the future of their campaign could eventually hinge on a final vote. Last weekend, a survey of League One football writers close to their club owners determined that nine clubs are currently favouring a vote to play the remaining fixtures, including Peterborough United and Sunderland who have both been vocal in their stance.
The survey showed that there are only seven clubs currently fighting to end the season now with the remaining teams telling writers that they are yet to have come to a final decision.
Playing the final games though could come at a fatal cost for clubs across the division, it has been claimed. Burton Albion have this week parted ways with boss Nigel Clough with the former Derby County manager making clear that it has helped to protect the future of their non-playing staff.
And now football finance expert Kieran Maguire, author of ‘The Price of Football,’ has said the cost of lifting players out of furlough and testing them regularly could cost the Sky Blues as much as £500,000 just to complete their final ten games – £50,000 per game.
This financial cost will come at a time where clubs will not be receiving the crucial matchday revenue that makes up nearly half of their total income.
Maguire said: “For most League One clubs there would be a cost of taking their players out of furlough for three to four weeks before matches resume.
“You then have the cost of £125,000 to £140,000 to pay for private testing.
“Player wages in League One currently average at £2,300-per-weekper-player so could easily cost the club another half-a-million pounds just to get match fit and to complete the fixture list.”
Mark Robins’ Sky Blues side have ten games left to play until the end of the season, should clubs vote that way, before attention turns to what will come of the 2020/21 campaign.
That season looks likely to at least begin behind closed doors, but Maguire does not believe smaller lower league clubs will be able to pay their players close to what they currently earn to play in empty stadiums.
“Unless clubs in League One have ‘sugar daddy’ owners they can only survive under furlough with a skeleton cost base,” he continued.
“Matchday revenue for EFL clubs is often 30-45% of their total income and there’s no way that any business could cope with such a loss.
He added: “I would expect significant pay cuts this summer in League One and League Two with so many players out of contract.” Meanwhile, a report published this week says the Government must underwrite a new body to protect clubs in the English Football League from going under in the coronavirus pandemic.
EFL chairman Rick Parry warned earlier this month that the 71 clubs in his competition were facing a collective £200m cash hole by the end of September.
Charlie Methven, the co-owner of League One side Sunderland, and the MP Damian Collins, formerly the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee, have produced a blueprint called ‘A Way Forward For Football.’
It sets out a six-point plan which includes the establishment by the Football Association of a Football Finance Authority (FFA), financially backed by the Government, which would provide funds to keep clubs affected by the pandemic afloat.
Rather than a loan, the report says, these funds would be exchanged for a minority shareholding of up to 49 per cent.
The funding could only be used to meet short-term liabilities and create breathing space to restructure finances, rather than on the recruitment of players or improving infrastructure.
An independent director, chosen by a registered supporters’ trust or local government authority, would join the board of the club to represent that shareholding, and then either the supporters’ trust or local authority could acquire the shareholding at a discount to market value at some point in the future.
The blueprint says the FFA should set and enforce the EFL’S financial regulations, and that the FFA should feature representation from the EFL, the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football Supporters’ Association.