Rule change?

CHIEF executive Trevor Birch has suggested the EFL may have to make changes to their financial regulations in order for clubs to avoid shortcomings such as those experienced by Derby County.

The club’s annual wage bill has spiralled out of control at Pride Park, rising as high as £47.8m for 2017-18, according to the last set of accounts filed at Companies House. Their high wage bill equated to 161% of the Rams’ turnover.

Asked whether there is anything the EFL can do to protect clubs from chairmen who gamble so riskily in hope of reaching the Premier League, Birch said: “That’s the difficulty when you have a benefactor model and an owner who wants to spend to achieve success, which then leads to the implementation of the financial regulations.

“Those rules are there to try and do exactly what you’re asking.

“We can’t do any more than that. We are working with clubs at the moment to try and refine those regulations but ultimately the clubs will vote on those in terms of what they want as a financial model.”