Maguire: Buying a Championship club is expensive hobby

BUYING a Championship club is an expensive hobby, and one where owners are in desperate search of the Premier League’s golden ticket.

That’s according to football finance expert and academic Kieran Maguire, who feels football has coped relatively well with the impact of coronavirus, with only Derby County from the top four leagues going into administration thus far.

While revealing a loss of just over £8m in their latest accounts, Hull City remain one of the clubs in the second tier searching for fresh investment, with Maguire believing the Tigers remain an attractive proposition due to their recent spell in the top flight.

Acun Ilicali, the Turkish media personality, remains in talks with the Allam family over a possible takeover of the club himself keen on chasing the top flight dream, while there have been numerous false dawns and collapses since the Tigers were first put up for sale.

Such are the riches in the Premier League, club owners continue to stretch themselves in a bid to join the financial elite, a point proven by Morris putting the Rams into administration.

The desire to eat at the top table is one which continues to attract desperation.

“It’s an expensive hobby, the Championship,” Maguire told the Mail.

“The problem in the Championship is not a problem of its own making, the Premier League’s success has exceeded all expectations and if you’re not in the Premier League, you’re running as an also-ran.

“The EFL have done fine compared to most other business, but of course you benchmark yourself against the Premier League which has been on steroids in terms of its success and is a fantastic export for this country.

“It entices people to overspend to try and get one of those 20 tickets at the golden table.”

Derby are understood to have a number of interested parties as administrators look to sell the ailing Rams, but Maguire believes the narrative used by Morris to blame coronavirus and the EFL is unfair.

“I think we’ve done well to have only one club go into administration in the form of Derby and that’s purely down to Mel Morris and his diversionary tactics of blaming Covid is harsh, blaming the EFL is frankly ridiculous,” he said.

“The EFL do not have a vendetta against Derby County and I say that as someone who has historically had a few run-ins with the EFL, they’re trying to play it by the letter.”