Premier League clubs sent 'death sentence' warning after Sheffield Wednesday collapse

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Premier League clubs have been warned they are condemning the EFL to a “near death sentence.” David Kogan, the head of the new Independent Football Regulator, delivered a damning verdict on the top flight’s failure to find a financial deal for the football pyramid.

And Kogan says that more clubs will follow Sheffield Wednesday’s financial meltdown as many are now just a month from going out of business without being propped up. Kogan, making his first public appearance at the FT Live event, said: “Alongside the success story of English football, the current system bakes in risk.

“Multiple clubs throughout the pyramid have told us they would not be able to survive a month if their owners pulled funding for one month. Players' wages have been rocketing across the whole of the pyramid. We cannot continue to finance this arms race.

“And relegation for many is a near-death sentence. Clubs facing relegation could see their revenues cut by up to 80 per cent if they fail to bounce back quickly.

“The whole pyramid is facing a series of cliff edges that people talk about, but they have not been addressed. Despite all the money coming in for media rights deals and all the other forms of income that are now coming in, increasingly not for media rights deals, you've still got a pyramid that is riven with debt and riven with risk.”

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Kogan urged the Premier League and EFL to reach an agreement - or they will do it for them as they look too bring in new powers while also penning the State of the Game report with recommendations by the end of the year. Prem clubs currently pay 16 per cent of their TV broadcast revenues to the pyramid, with the EFL pushing for 25 per cent and the end of parachute payments.

Championship club Wednesday has been left on the brink after a takeover deal fell through and Kogan fears that will be an increasing concern. Kogan added: “If you want an example of why we exist, well, it's only got to look at the situation in the last 24 hours at Sheffield Wednesday. This is one of the largest, most prestigious names in English football, one of the founders of English football, one of the founders of the Premier League, that has spent the last two or three years in absolute chaos, including yesterday.

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“We have real powers to intervene if football cannot reach agreement, the so-called backstop clause. It would be an utter failure by football not to seize the moment and get over the stasis that currently exists. A deal done in 2019, which is the last time a deal was done, that simply relies rolling over year by year to no one's satisfaction, is not sensible practice and it will lead to unsustainable levels of pressure within the system.

“It's to everyone's benefit for football to try and reach this understanding. My message is that the pyramid needs to survive as it exists today. And to do that, English football must come together and end this uncertainty. And it needs to do it now.

“But if the leagues can't find a new deal, those powers will be enacted. And we will be looking at things such as the current mechanism for parachute payments, the cliff edges and the other features of the existing deal. Clearly this has been an ongoing issue between the Premier League and the EFL for the last few years.

“Parachute payments are not an unknown topic, and the level of fiscal imbalance that they may or may not create is an issue that clearly we're going to have to address.”

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