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Football League Considering Drastic Measures Over Parachute Payments
Championship clubs met yesterday to discuss radical proposals in light of improved parachute payments to relegated Premier League clubs next year. Thanks to a windfall of £5.5bn in TV rights relegated clubs will be given a payment of £59mil over a four year period, a 22% increase on the current deal. The new deal will supposedly see clubs receiving £23mil in the first season, £18mil in the second and then £9mil in the two years after it, whilst the “solidarity payment” paid to other clubs in the Championship would increase by just 5%.
According to the Guardian, a range of proposals have been discussed; all of which would affect Blues heavily. The options include taking away the “solidarity payment” (currently £2.3mil) from clubs like Blues who are in receipt of a parachute payment; putting in a “hard” salary cap of a set figure rather than a percentage of turnover or the most drastic option of walking away from the Premier League altogether. The article goes on to state some owners are contemplating walking away from football as they cannot compete with clubs receiving payments equal to their entire turnover.
In Blues current financial state, the removal of £2.3mil income would hit us hard. It might seem a small amount in comparison to the £16mil in parachute payments we received this year but if you bear in mind the turnover of the club without the money received from the Premier League was £23mil then it’s a 10% reduction in that – which is huge. Blues are already going to have to deal with a drop in income of £8mil as they enter the third year of the parachute payment schedule and with the current finances not being brilliant it means the summer could be even more difficult.
If Blues could maintain their current wage structure next year, a wage cap would potentially affect the club as well as wages in the 2011-12 accounts add up to £25mil – the Guardian article suggests a “hard” salary cap of £5mil less than that. However, the likelihood is that the wage bill next year at St Andrews will be nowhere near as high for a multitude of reasons; firstly the huge amount of players out of contract and secondly because of the lack of money the club have to offer large new deals anyway. In all probability it would level the playing field somewhat and it would be interesting what it would do to some of the clubs at Blues’ level who have received large amounts of investment over the last couple of years.
As much as I hate the way football at the top is run and how money has ruined the game, the option of no promotion to the Premier League to me is unthinkable. The whole point of the sport is to play as well as you can and to go as high up the levels as possible; to introduce a glass ceiling because of the distortion from money from the top seems like cutting noses off to spite faces; with no promotion what incentives does anyone have to invest in any club outside the Premier League? It’s my feeling that if that happened a Premier League Two would be inevitable and the remainder of the football pyramid would be left to wither by the “rich” clubs.
What all this talk does is confirm just how much money runs the game. As Blues fans we’ve all felt how hard it’s been since relegation due to a vastly lower amount of money coming into the club both from TV and from our owners. It confirms to me how important getting out of this division (in the right direction) is and how important it is that Blues get some new investment in – imagine how bad things would be next season if we didn’t get a parachute payment at all?
Tags: Money, Parachute Payments, Premier League, The Championship
46 Responses to “Football League Considering Drastic Measures Over Parachute Payments”
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It’s a con though aint it Dan this parachute payment thing.
Gives you an unfair advantage over existing Championship clubs especially those just promoted.
Scrap it and lets see clubs living within their means.
Doesn’t seem to be much of an advantage to recently relegated clubs? in fact it notoriously hard to bounce straight back. otherwise the same 3 clubs relegated would be promoted almost every season
The parachute payments have many benefits the main one its stops clubs collapsing financially which would damage the championship more.
How often do clubs use the parachute payments to invest in bringing prem players in? Not that often, its usually players from other championship clubs to replace those with release clauses which spreads the wealth around.
As long as we have a ridicously rich, powerful and soulless premiership these payments will exist as teams promoted will need some reassurance that if the gamble doesn’t work out they can recover. Only end will be is if they remove promotion and relegation which as stated would destroy English football.
The only proposal i see in the ones supposedly discussed that makes sense is a hard cap on players wages something I would love to see and would ensure a level playing field.
Only thing I admire from the US sports is the roster and wage cap systems… (cheerleaders ain’t bad either and the ability to drink while in the stadium)
Ah right so getting millions of £££s whereas other clubs don’t get it aint an advantage.
Gotcha.
The amount of relegated sides struggling at the wrong end of the table suggests it might not be much of an advantage.
When the millions are all accounted for and are earmarked to keep you afloat no not really advantage… As i said if it was the same teams would bounce back every year. Do they?
The first thing the Prem and Football League need and should do to protect the clubs and league structures is to make every players contract with a relegation clause, e.g 50% pay cut.
Not just between Prem and championship but Championship and League One etc, etc.
As much as they protect clubs with the creditor rule that clubs and players are paid before other (more deserving) creditors, they need to protect clubs with a relegation clause too.
It hasnt given the likes of Us, Wolves, Blackburn or Blackpool much of an advantage has it ?, could possibly add Bolton to that group as well, in fact the cash has only strived to keep us afloat..
Now if we were a well run club then it might have done
None of this money is distributed fairly. All clubs in the football league should be financed by the huge amounts generated, and allow the players to come through. If this goes ahead, and the Premier League continues to strangle to death the rest of British Football, those of us who are fortunate enough to have Sky, should cancel subscriptions and by doing so, force a re-think through lack of funds of this whole shambles.
KRO.
i usually say “never say never” about most subjects, BUT never had sky and i know i never will stoop that low.
I would accept this rule even if it meant more hardship next season.
Football, even if it is only the FL needs to address players greed and reckless and rich owners who are all killing the game and driving the working man out of the game.
I want them to act now, not in two or three seasons time.
Bring in the team wage maximum and a turnover rule.
While the current system operates there is no incentive to run your club on a break even or profit margin.
QPR & Swansea were paying 150% of their turnover just in wages alone to get out of the Championship, while other clubs run a tight ship.
Essentially the Premiership will become franchised if these proposals are implemented , which will surely be the death knell for football in this country.
Would UEFA / FIFA allow that though ?
Blueboy that won’t happen except for the last proposal of a breakaway, but as Al says that breakaway would cause Prem Div 2, but the other proposals i believe are spot on and need to happen asap.
Chris that makes the presumption there would be promotion / relegation to & from a Prem 2 league.
Not sure that would be the case..
Death knell lol
Which band released – Football League Considering Drastic Measures Over Parachute Payments
;-)
That sounds like it should be a McLusky song title.
if your a premiership team you get premiership money, if you get relegated you dont.
it would be very interesting to no the real facts about what happened to all blues
parachute payment money wouldnt it indeed.
KRO.
I’d imagine most of it went to players salaries, upkeep of the stadium and wast hills, staff salaries and day to day expenditure as well as league and player registration fees etc.
Until somebody can prove that somebody is taking money out of the club for unjust/unreasonable measue can we all stop whinging about it and simply turn up at the games and support the team that you all claim to support?
Dave
I can’t believe I’m having to post this AGAIN
Parachute Money = 16mil
Players wages alone = 25mil
Where do you think the money went?
4% went on PP expenses!
Dan
Surely that cannot take away a solidarity payment that is already in effect agreed and budgeted for.
They can only remove it from future relegated clubs, that have to honour the current deal until its conclusion. Or am I being thick
It’s only been hypothesised so I don’t know for sure – you’d hope that they wouldn’t but we don’t know that for sure.
With 3, different governing bodies in existance, — The F,A. [ WHICH is, supposed to be THE governing body ], Then the Premier League, [ Formed primarially by mony, to create further riches for the few ]. and then the Football League, [ Wich is ” toothless and powerless ” in the main,].
NO PRIZES, for guessing which holds the sway on footballs future,???.
My sky sports subscription would be cancelled if this was to go through. A Premier League 2 would just lower the bar and pass the problem to the bottom of PL2 within a few years..
The PL aims to protect itself and I thought at he number of promotion places would reduce to 2 or even possibly 1. The championship will become like a reserve league for the premiership with loan deals facilitating this
A Euro league may still be created since that is where the real money is and what the finishing in the top 4 is about: MONEY.
7 Substitutes, what a joke. How many industries can afford to have an additional 75% workforce sitting and watching their colleagues doing the work.
KRO
You can imagine a scenario where the top six or so premiership clubs have two teams — an A team in a permanent year-round European league and a B team in the Premiership.
I have a friend who supports Cardiff — he’s licking his lips at the prospect of a season in the top flight. But he’s most likely going to be faced with a season of total struggle where the aim is to nick the odd point, where agents hover like flies trying to offload players you’ve never heard onto your team, while all the time seeing your club rack up monster debts in the quest for glory.
It’s just rubbish and the greed could one day just break football.
What a mess the game is in!! An example of capitalism at it’s very worst!
Is Jezza Peace’s model going to be the the saviour of the game?!!!!!!!!!!!
Whilst I accept it will potentially impact Blues [if done retrospectively] the removal of the ‘solidarity payment’ sounds resonably sensible,, although, will it be removed entirely or just partially once the club reverts to the lower parachute payment?
ive got my opinions on where the money went, but 25million on wages is ludicrous.
just asking the question thats all! KRO.
Money rules the game and ‘sky’ are the ones helping the game become so divided. It really is a corporate game at board level, and sky and agents have a lot to answer for. So what do the those clubs do that are not in the premier league then? Wait for a billionaire oil sheikh to pump his wealth into a stadium that has seen many years and many generations of fans? Do we just accept it that the competition for the winning the ultimate prize of the top league ..is unreachable? Is the echelons of English football so boring and predictable that only Man U, Chelsea or Man City are the ones who control it?
I’ve always said, that Birmingham City should never consider promotion to the PL without seriously being prepared for it first, and that means having access to an obscene amount of cash ..in order to hire and fire as many managers as is deemed necessary by the one with deep pockets chasing the title.
Control and fairness is needed within all the leagues below the PL, but that will never happen in the PL though will it?
On another note, I would really like to see a top club hit the rails and suffer like we have, I know it sounds cynical of me, but I don’t care. Either way, I don’t have sky now, and I doubt I will ever subscribe really should this go through ..a PL2 ??? Just nonsense.
Totally agree Paulo. It might have to take a huge club going through what Bluews and to a far worse degree Pompey have gone through for the FA and the Premier League to sit up and take notice. I think it would have to be one of the top 10 elite clubs otherwise it just wouldn’t get the media coverage and effect as many fans.
This could just be a blessing in disguise, when we finally rid ourselves of the current clowns the run our club, clear the debts and strip of the high earners and older players, invest in the youth and build a squad to take us forward.
Yes we will have to cut our cloth accordingly, and success may have to be limited to midtable championship status, but at least we will have our club back, we will be proud of our kids and the way we conduct ourselves, whilst the rest of the football world eats itself from within and comes crashing down as it surley will.
At the end of the day, as long as there are 11 blues players running out on that hallowed turf on a Saturday afternoon then im happy because thats all I ever wanted to see, I dont support Blues for the trophies I support them because its in my blood and always will be.
I dont care if we never win another trophy, I will be there until the end of the road. KRO
*ridiculously
after seeing that spelling felt a bit…
This rot started long before “SKY” was on the scene,,,,,,they have I agree made things much worse but,,,,,,I do not suggest a return to the days of the maximum wage of £7.00 per week out of season and £12.50 in season,,,,,but the rot was begun by Tommy Trinder [ chairman of Fulham ]declaring and fighting to pay his captain “Johnny Haynes” £100.00 per week,,,,to keep him happy,,,,,others followed like sheep to pay their “Stars” ridiculas wages with no thought of the consequences,,,,Sky have just added to the problem of greed by players, agents,managers and chairmen by giving out obscene amounts of money,,,,,,they now pay out more than some countrys have to balance all their budgets with
If we say the average footballers career is over at 35 and that most people work till they’re 70 with the way things are going, would you agree that a maximum wage would be 50k a year if we say that 25k a year is a respectable wage for a fulltime local entertainer?
I’d like to see a one tier premier league with no promotion into it. Just the same 20 teams year in year out. Then I’d like to see a restructuring of the FL, with a pyramid structure and the promotion winners from the conference being promoted into a ‘north’ league one or ‘south’ league two.
Then I’d like to see the European Slots for competitions re worked. CL places for Championship winners, PL winners, and FA/FL cup winners. Runners up getting the Europa League Places. The 5th Europa League place could go to the LT winners. Any team that wins in Europe and get’s to defend their title causes the loss of that place from their league (not cup) competition. So if Chelsea won in the CL they would automatically get the CL spot and the winner of the PL, if not Chelsea, would get the Europa League spot.
The FL would need wealth balancing measures but if we say that every team in the league gets a starting payment at the beginning of the season, with a slight bonus at the end for staying in the league and a bigger bonus for first and second place I think that would be fair.
Then you market the (insert curse of choice here) out of the FL. Any team can work it’s way up (Wigan used to play at the same level as Rushall Olympic), any team can turn professional (Burton), any team can play in Europe (Blues) any team can have a cup glory (Bradford and their giant killing exploits). And all teams in the leagues play on a pretty much even keel and that league titles are ‘not bought’ and it’s not the same 20 teams over and over.
Then see what happens to the Premiership as it gets stagnent.
Another wage bill added,OLLY LEE loan till end of season.
Thought we had no dosh,anyone know who has been bankrolling us this season.
Suppose to be 7 players leaving in Jan or we were going into admin,2 went.
Same old story last couple of transfer windows last year & this,DOOM & GLOOM MERCHANTS IF WE DON’T SELL THE SQUAD WE WILL BE DOOOMED i TELL YA DOOMED !!
Still keep adding to the squad…CONFUSED ??
I dream of a Euroean league being set-up. Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal could all join.
We should all waive them off from the dockside with white hankies wishing them well…….
And once they’re gone – THEY’RE GONE!
No re-admission to the English Football league, no reserve teams in the first tier – they’ve severed their ties with the national league chasing the dollar, and will live or die there. They will soon learn how meaningless it becomes playing Barca twice every season, and also soon learn the meaning of financial hardship when the armchair fans start to lose interest in the European League, and the Sky subscriptions start to dry up.
Hell – we could even invite Celtic and Rangers in and make it a British League!
“I have a dream…..”
I dunno, I’d like to see a European league but only on the condition you can compete for a year within it and automatically get relegated at the end. So EPL winner and runner up get promoted and the same for any number of Top Flights across Europe.
Never going to happen as the top clubs will demand to be in it year in year out to get more cash.
I fear that any european league once created would actually decimate the premiership too as the money would follow those top 5 or clubs from each country leaving the rest in the same position as the championship now
A true European league of 4 divisions may work for a limited time but I think over time fans would get bored of it and want a return to domestic football and rivalry.
RichardM – Yours especially and the other posts on here today have restored my faith in human nature.
I’ll be on that dockside too waving them off ( maybe without the hanky as long as I’ve two fingers ) , maybe they can take all the glory seeking couch potatoes with them.
As you say no re-admission. Four UK leagues with everyone dreaming of winning it in August.
I have a dream too – but sadly I’ll probably wake up soon. Meanwhile KRO
whilst there is an obscene amount of money in the premier league and now more parachute money championship teams will continue to chase the financial dream. England will never win anything whilst there is a premier league. When finally a ‘big’ club is liquidated sense may prevail – i pray it aint blues
As the Premier League suck in more and more money from SKY and others TV rights, it goes immediately into players and agents pockets. Why cant they use it to improve the match day experience and to lower the entrance fees. Every time I take a refreshment break with my fellow working men and women at a match in this country, I feel like I am supping in an American storm drain or beneath a windy motorway bridge, its appalling! Some of the facilities for the Corporate parasites in this country are incredible, ever likely they prefer to quaff rather than return to their seats to watch the second half. A situation reminiscent of Upstairs Downstairs? If someone doesnt wake up and smell the bovril, then football as we know it, as a working person’s past time will be a thing of the past. and sooner rather than later.
I think we’re a short step from the American owners in particular wanted to stop relegation to protect their investment
Murdoch’s economics create a few extremely Rich and successful clubs (or people) and many many clubs (or people) struggling to make ends meet. I will never subscribe to SKY and pay Murdoch to wreck the game that belongs to the working class – who soon wont be able to afford to take their family to the game. It’s currupt and patently unfair. As for our club – let’s enjoy our football and back Lee and the boys in blue for the rest of the season. KRO
Why blame Sky? Surely the most successful clubs in the last decade have become so by an influx of private money. ie. Chelsea, Man. ,Man utd. Sky only adds the cream to the pot. As for people who don’t subscribe to Sky one wonders if they still have black and white TVs and enjoy watching sports such as curling.
I don’t subscribe to sky ..and yes, in my spare time time, i like to do a spot of curling, a tad bit of bowls on a nice sunny day (where I can wear white), a little bit of Le-Cross in an afternoon and when it’s getting later in the day, I like to throw horseshoes at a stick in the lawn, with the fine chaps of my local bridge club ……!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Just cos I ain’t got sky doesn’t mean I can’t watch anything …there are ways and means you know!)
Sadly though, I have to dissapoint ..I have a colour TV.
They need to come up with some rules on the the PPayments can be used. ie to reduce debt and not to support new signings. Not easy to do but should try to do it