Staggering figure exposes gap between Premier League and Championship as EFL chief Rick Parry calls for redistribution of wealth

A year on from the publication of the independent fan-led review into football governance - with a key recommendation being the creation of an independent regulator committed to ensuring "financial sustainability of the professional game” - the Government have yet to respond despite endorsing the findings.

They plan to publish a white paper in due course.

At the heart of the problem is the fact that the Premier League are yet to hold talks regarding redistribution of cash, one of the review's key recommendations, to the EFL.

The appointment of an independent regulator would end the stand-off in Parry's view.

He said: “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a proper reset. This isn’t about tinkering around the edges or taking a few extra percentages, it’s about really grasping the opportunity to say we have got to have a fresh look about how the game is run and make sure all the clubs are sustainable.“Cynically, you might think that actually clubs in the Premier League aren’t going to vote for this because they’re giving up money while they are in the Premier League, if their payment is reduced from, say, £100m to £75m and parachute payments are of enormous benefit to them if they are unfortunate enough to get relegated. So, it’s a double whammy. Why would they willingly vote for it?

“Which is why we’ve been saying all along it needs external intervention, a regulator or it needs the FA, because negotiating and hoping that everyone is going to vote for this seems to be highly unlikely.

"Or we’ll end up with a fudge and a compromise, and we think this is a brilliant opportunity to get the game’s finances sorted out once and for all.”

Parry cited the disparity of £89m between sides who finish at the bottom of the Premier League and at the top of the Championship as evidence of the gross unfairness of the current system.

He said: “It is becoming incredibly hard to bridge the gap between the Premier League and the Championship. The gap is widening, as is demonstrated by media distributions.

"In under 30 years, Premier League (revenue) has gone up 68 times, the EFL’s up five-and-a-half times. That is a pretty astonishing widening of the gap.

“The sharpest focus is the 'cliff edge' between top and bottom. In 2018-19, for example, Huddersfield Town, bottom of the Premier League, got £97m in media distributions; Norwich, top of the Championship, got £8m. That’s a gap of £89m.

"Huddersfield had a great two years in the Premier League, pretty much out of the blue.

"To put it into perspective, it would take 35 years in the EFL to earn the same money as they got in two years in the Premier League. That is the scale of the problem.

“We would also say that the Premier League knows there’s a problem, but its way of addressing it is totally flawed. Its solution is parachute payments, which relegated clubs receive for up to three years."First-year parachute payment is now £44m and is also bigger than the solidarity payments received by all of the League One and League Two clubs added together. The parachute payments are huge and they are distorting."

On specific plans to re-distribute monies, Parry wants 25 per cent of TV revenues in the Premier League to be shared out and a merit-based system, based on league position, to replace parachute payments.

He continued: "Our objective – and this is really important – is to halve the 'cliff edge' so we don’t have a gap of £89m between top and bottom but we have a gap of around £44m or £45m."In order to get there we have to do a number of things. First of all we have to split TV revenues and share them 75:25.

“Secondly, we have to look at the ratio from top to bottom in how we distribute money. At the moment, it’s very flat in the Championship.

"We are proposing a 2:1 ratio between top and bottom. We are also proposing an abolition of parachute payments. If all of that comes to pass we would have a much fairer competition.

"But we have had no dialogue with the Premier League."