Premier League have had 30 years to sort it out. We need help NOW!
EFL chief Rick Parry on the great wealth divide and his frustration at the top flight
IN THE two- and- a- half years since EFL chairman Rick Parry told a select committee that football needed a ‘financial reset’, the Government have burnt through Prime Ministers, Chancellors and Sports Ministers at a rate to rival any trigger-happy club chairman.
And negotiations with the Premier League over a new funding package have yet to begin.
Behind the scenes, several solutions to the sport’s funding crisis have been discussed and many discarded — Project Big Picture, the European Super League, the Premier League’s Strategic Review, Tracey Crouch’s Fan Led Review, the New Deal for Football — making it all the more bizarre that representatives of the 92 professional clubs have been unable to have meaningful dialogue.
Parry is sanguine about the state of play despite his frustration at the delays and what he views as many missed opportunities.
The latest proposal for that reset is the so-called New Deal for Football, in which the top flight would increase funding to the lower divisions, with the payments to each club pegged to their league position, but three months after the matter was discussed at a Premier League meeting the EFL are still waiting for the details.
‘There is no dialogue with the Premier League,’ Parry told Sportsmail, ‘and the Premier League have told the Government that negotiations have not started. They’ve mentioned the New Deal for Football, but we haven’t a clue what it is. The Government have been asking them directly, but they say we haven’t started negotiating yet.
‘(Premier League chief) Richard Masters deserves credit for being disarmingly honest, but for him to repeatedly tell Government that we haven’t started talking and he hasn’t got a mandate tells you where we are.’
For Parry the problem is clear, with the 20 Premier League clubs unable to agree among themselves how the extra funding should be paid for, and which clubs should contribute what.
‘The problem is they can’t get an agreement among the clubs over how to pay for it,’ Parry says. ‘There’s a split between the Big Six and the 14 as usual. They acknowledge something needs to be done but can’t get agreement on how, who or when. Without external intervention from Government we’re not going to get anywhere.’ The irony is that the so-called New Deal appears to chime with many of Parry’s solutions, as it would reduce the level of parachute payments given to clubs relegated from the Premier League, with the focus on league position ensuring the money was spread out more evenly.
The EFL are calling for 25 per cent of the Premier League’s revenue to be redistributed to the bottom three divisions, as opposed to the 15.6 per cent they give away at present.
‘ The Premier League give £887million to the Championship over three years which is great, but £633m of it is in parachute payments so they’ve effectively created a 25-team Premier League,’ Parry says.
‘Our starting point is to focus on the cliff edge and to halve the gap. If we halve the gap (in prize money between the bottom Premier League club and the Championship winner) from £88m to £44m then you don’t need the £44m parachute, as you’re solving the problem for everybody.
‘In order to halve the gap you have to redistribute revenues more fairly, abolish parachute payments, and adjust the merit payments in both the Premier League and EFL to a ratio of around 2:1 from the top to bottom club. It would cost the Premier League around £280m, which is less than 10 per cent of their revenue, so it’s not a huge amount of pain.
‘The result would be the Premier League’s bottom club getting around £75m rather than £100m, but if we’d done it two years ago before the TV money went up again we could have got there without them giving money away. The longer we leave it the more painful it will get for them.’
Parry remains hopeful that the Government will apply some pressure to the Premier League by following the recommendations of Crouch’s Fan Led Review.
A White Paper setting out plans for an independent regulator is due to be published this year, which, given the threat to their independence, might focus minds at the Premier League.
‘The regulator is not a big priority for Government, but the Prime Minister recognises that not legislating could be dangerous. It has cross-party support so back-pedalling would give an open goal to Labour,’ Parry says.
‘Tracey acknowledged the need for redistribution but said we should just get on with it. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as that. The Premier League and EFL have had 30 years to sort it out so we need some help.’
They effectively created a 25-team Premier League