Premier League riches and prestige await winner
FULHAM and Mile Jedinak’s Aston Villa clash in the English Championship playoff final at Wembley Stadium tonight knowing either unrestrained joy and financial riches or crushing heartache await.
No other match in world club soccer has quite as much riding on the outcome as the winner-takes-all clash to decide who will be the 20th club in next season’s Premier League.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Cardiff City claimed automatic promotion — Cardiff pipped Fulham to second place after the London club suffered a 3-1 loss to Birmingham City on the final day of the regular season.
It left Slavisa Jokanovic’s side two points behind Cardiff and quite how costly that loss, its first in the Championship since December, will be will only become apparent after the final whistle tonight.
The winning team will guarantee itself a minimum windfall of $215.4 million — its share of the Premier League’s eye-watering rights deal.
Despite all the talk of the world’s “richest game”, it will boil down to a match between two proud old clubs trying to get themselves back to where they believe they belong.
“When I arrived here 2½ years ago we were fighting relegation, so I believe we’ve broadcasting made great steps to have the opportunity to bring this club back and be a promoted team,” said Serbian Jokanovic.
“We have an important chance in front of us, and we expect we are going to find our best performance, follow our style, be confident, and cross this important line.”