EFL SPLIT ‘CATASTROPHIC’

FLEETWOOD chief executive Steve Curwood has warned it would be ‘catastrophic’ for the English Football League if a club broke ranks and went direct to the Premier League for financial help.

Curwood, an EFL board member, is part of the ‘Save Our Clubs’ campaign which is calling on the government to help teams badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The EFL has already rejected a bailout offer from the Premier League which amounted to £50million in grants and loans, but the top flight said the offer would remain on the table and that it would engage with any club which could prove financial hardship as a result of Covid.

Curwood says a number of clubs are close to going to the wall, but said it was vital that the collective held together.

‘Yes (the £20m of Premier League grants) would help some League One and League Two clubs, but we’re a collective,’ Curwood said.

‘The broadcasting deal which we have with Sky is predominantly created because of the acknowledgement that the Championship is our main product.

‘For League One and Two clubs to split and make arrangements separately, even in the short term, would be catastrophic.

‘It is a collective position that we need to adopt and we need to be coming together to determine what is required.’

Curwood said the Premier League had now offered an additional £30m emergency loan facility to Championship clubs, which will be considered at today’s EFL board meeting.

But he said the overall package from the Premier League ‘barely touched the sides’ of what was required, and insisted the ball was now firmly in the government’s court.

He questioned the level of enthusiasm for football among the government’s decision-makers, and warned the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, would be remembered among football fans for all the wrong reasons if he did not act.