PARRY ACCUSED OF JEOPARDISING BAILOUT AS EFL TURN DOWN £50M

THE Football League are set to reject the Premier League’s £50million bailout offer — and top-flight chairman Gary Hoffman has accused Rick Parry of jeopardising the EFL’s chances of securing a rescue package. A series of divisional calls were made yesterday, with the consensus that the offer — which only promises a £20m grant for clubs in Leagues One and Two with the possibility of a further £30m in loans to follow — should be rejected. The view among those in the Championship was that any bailout should not just be for the lower two divisions. ‘A plan for the EFL has to be for the whole of the EFL and that was reflected on the call,’ an official at one Championship club explained. ‘There was a realisation that the £250m EFL chairman Rick Parry had spoken about was unrealistic, but the view was that there was no merit in taking the first offer. ‘It would only weaken the position, not only with the Premier League but also with the Government.’

But in an explosive letter sent to the EFL after Wednesday’s Premier League meeting, Hoffman claimed that Parry had refused to engage in bailout negotiations due to his secret talks with Liverpool and Manchester United over Project Big Picture. Hoffman also accused Parry of deliberately seeking to create division among the top 20 clubs and confirmed Sportsmail’s revelations that the EFL had already rejected another bailout offer of a £40m grant and £110m in loans due to the conditions attached. ‘In times of crisis it is even more important that we work together rather than create division,’ Hoffman wrote. ‘Despite Rick’s actions on a number of matters which have deliberately created division and put in jeopardy a much-needed rescue package for EFL clubs, the Premier League gained club approval for an offer for League One and League Two clubs. On Tuesday we received feedback of our first funding offer from (EFL CEO) Dave Baldwin, who has been nothing but professional throughout. He stated that the caveats applied against both the proposed loan and grant funds were not something the EFL board could put before the clubs.’ As revealed by Sportsmail yesterday, Premier League clubs will discuss assistance for Championship outfits, but only those who can show that the coronavirus pandemic — rather than overspending — is behind their financial troubles. On yesterday’s calls there was hostility towards the top flight over the latest offer, with representatives from Gillingham, Northampton Town and Burton Albion among the most vocal. Clubs were unanimous in their belief that the Premier League offer should be rejected.