Outrage at Premier League's demand that promoted clubs help settle its debts
The Premier League will charge newly promoted clubs £8m each next season and in 2021-22 to help soften the blow of broadcast revenues lost because of the Covid-19 crisis.
The development has caused bewilderment among Championship clubs with hopes of going up. They question why they must pay a penalty that relates to a Premier League season in which they have played no part and some are viewing it as akin to paying an entrance fee for an exclusive members’ club.
In their opinion, the top division ought to be spreading its largesse down the leagues – as the government has demanded – and not, in effect, make a raid on upwardly mobile Football League clubs.
The Premier League has been forced to agree to rebates of £330m to broadcasters because of the failure, through no fault of its own, to deliver its product as advertised. It will not pay the money now but in instalments over next season and the one after – years two and three of a three-year broadcast deal.
Under the plan, which Championship clubs learned of last week, the three teams promoted would each pay £8m, with the three coming up in 2020-21 doing the same – adding up to £48m.
Promotion is estimated to be worth £180m to a club and the likelihood would be that the £8m would be deducted from money paid out by the league. Clubs relegated can expect parachute payments of between £75m-90m over two or three years and they too would be expected to contribute towards the broadcasting rebate. It will most likely be taken from their parachute payments.
The argument in favour of charging the promoted clubs, of making them bear a portion of the responsibility, relates to the knock-on effects of coronavirus; how it will affect not only this season but the next one and even the one after.
The next Premier League season will kick off later than planned and the league, in negotiations with broadcasters over the rebate, has essentially paid a price to control the flexibility of the start date. Therefore the promoted clubs are being told to contribute to that premium.
A further counterpoint is that promoted clubs are entering a changed landscape, a competition operating with altered costs over the next two seasons. It is a reality and, as they will belong to that competition, it is felt that they should pay.