League One clubs will fall ‘like dominoes’, warns Blackpool’s owner

Blackpool owner Simon Sadler believes that third tier clubs will ‘go like dominoes’ this summer – unless a fairer distribution of money is established across the footballing pyramid.

The Seasiders voted to end the season at last week’s League One meeting, as an overwhelming majority of clubs backed plans to curtail the campaign and decide the season on an unweighted points-per-game basis.

And Sadler – who recently celebrated his one-year anniversary at Bloomfield Road – believes a long summer is on the cards for a host of Sunderland’s rivals in League One, while he expects that several clubs will follow once one slips into financial trouble.

“I think clubs will go like dominoes,” he told The Guardian.

“Once one goes many will start to go.

“The money in League One and League Two isn’t there to support football without fans.

“Match-day income is around 60% of our revenues.

“Owners generally don’t have the deep pockets of those in the Premier League and Championship, and many now are very likely to be having problems in their own businesses.”

Sadler has now called on football’s governing bodies to ensure that the vast fortune within the game is allowed to trickle down the leagues – rather than remaining in the top flight.

“The clubs are all community assets so it doesn’t make sense for just 20 of them to have all the money,” he added.

“The vast majority of football’s money goes to players and agents in the Premier League, so there should be much fairer distribution.

“In the past [before the Premier League breakaway in 1992] it used to be 50-50 between the First Division and the other three divisions.

“Now 93% stays in the Premier League and 7% is distributed.

“Football needs to change or else we’re going to lose it.

“Having seen how the community of Blackpool responded to getting its club back, I’m well placed to talk about it.

“I don’t want any more people to lose their clubs – they’re too important to the social fabric of the country.”

Blackpool were 13th in the League One table when the season was suspended in March.