MONEY IS THE 3-UP CHARTER
PAUL Cook was right when he called Notts County’s failure to win automatic promotion a ‘sporting disgrace’. No team who collects 107 points in a 46-game season should ever have to worry about the play-offs.
Yet as the vain appeals of the past two decades demonstrate, there is little sense in making ethical arguments. The EFL board and its 72 member clubs know perfectly well that the National League warrants a third promotion place.
Rick Parry, the EFL chairman, admitted as much in February. “We are having a lot of discussion about three up, three down,” he said. “We absolutely recognise the need to look downwards as well as up.”
Speaking after County vanquished Cook’s Chesterfield at Wembley on Saturday, the National League’s general manager Mark Ives made his case too.
“We want to make it happen,” he said. “There is an appetite for it across the game, including within the EFL.”
All positive stuff, but nothing we haven’t heard before. The trick is persuading EFL clubs to vote for it.
Over the last 20 years, they have witnessed Wrexham endure 15 seasons or arduous toil, clubs like Darlington blink out of existence, and Scunthorpe slide straight into National North. There are just too many horror stories and cautionary tales for the required majority of EFL chairmen to take the plunge.
Sweetener
Pulling on heartstrings won’t change their minds. One hundred and seven points won’t soothe their nerves. Only money will make them listen.
When a second promotion spot was granted to the Conference in 2002, the wheels of the deal were greased by a £50,000 sweetener for every League Two club. It was provided by the FA, who knew that the collapse of ITV Digital had left lower league sides facing ruin.
No such opportunity exists now. Earlier this month the EFL announced a bumper £935m TV rights deal with Sky, which will run for five years from the start of 2024-25. According to early reports, League Two clubs will receive £590,000 per season in guaranteed broadcast income, a 25 percent increase on the previous deal. To clubs flatlined by the financial ravages of Covid-19, it is a vital lifeline. Why would any of them risk it slipping through their fingers?
One chink of light for the National League is that the EFL remain in dialogue with the Premier League over a redistribution of wealth throughout the pyramid.
Minnow
Both the FA and the Premier League have made the point that the EFL can hardly demand charity from above whilst pulling up the drawbridge at the bottom. Parry has acknowledged this, and is willing to introduce a three up, three down system if his proposal for a 75-25 split of Premier League TV revenue is accepted. Realistically, however, the Premier League will delay and prevaricate until the vague threat of regulatory intervention becomes a genuine possibility. That is far from certain to happen, and a long way off if it does. Perhaps the only incentive for EFL clubs, then, is the sheer quality rising from the National League.
In recent years, the likes of Forest Green, Stockport and now Wrexham have all entered the division wielding League One budgets. Notts County won’t be far behind. With each moneyed arrival, familiar mid-table plodders who could always rely on a basket case or impoverished minnow to fill the relegation quota are squeezed further down the table. Rochdale were this year’s victims. Next year, it could be Accrington, or Morecambe or, quite frankly, anybody. And that’s the point.
If nobody is safe from relegation then having an easy route back becomes more important than reducing the odds of going down.
It is an argument that grows in relevance every year and feels closer than ever. But will it be enough to get those turkeys voting for Christmas? Don’t hold your breath.