EFL

TO BAILOUT or not to bailout — that is the question.
As the Government flip-flops (go, don’t go, stop, no, start… no, I meant stop!), there’s now two football landscapes: BC (Before Covid) and AD (After Disease).

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Simon Jordan reckons the Premier League and Government can work together to save EFL clubsCredit: PA:Press Association

To get back to somewhere like life was in BC is going to require significant support for the game.
Our national sport is bloated with overpaid players, the majority of which aren’t willing to help their own industry.
Premier League clubs – irrespective of loss of gate receipts and broadcaster reclaims into the hundreds of millions – are still spending money like drunken sailors.
Look at clubs like Chelsea ponying up £230million in transfer fees.

The Government are under pressure to help, despite the pandemic only really condensing a problem into five months that would likely have arrived in five years anyway.
So, should an industry that seemingly has self-harm hardwired into its governance be deserving of taxpayers’ money to bail it out?
The Premier League can’t be entitled to any bailout but where the argument becomes critical is in the EFL.

The 72 clubs, the runts of football’s litter, have no long-term future and some could be in real danger within months without a rescue package.

Match-day revenue accounts for 30 per cent of Championship clubs’ turnover, while that figure rises to 40 per cent in League One and 60 per cent in League Two.
That means £50m was lost last season, with a further £20m a month being lost every month this season.
The EFL needs a £250m bailout or it will be decimated, with a slew of clubs going bust.
The only beneficiaries will be ghastly administrators whose fees are often so extortionate and disproportionate to the work undertaken, it veers towards legalised larceny.
The Government is resisting the idea because the feeling is that this is a sport awash with money.
When the EFL proposes salary caps, the PFA’s response is to consider that unlawful, so perhaps that explains the Government’s rather ill-informed view.
The insistence is the Premier League, as a result of Project Restart, now assumes the mantle of bailing out the EFL, rather than the taxpayer.
If you’re in the Premier League, which is losing potentially £1.5BILLION, you now have £12m extra per club to give to leagues that, as far as your concerned, are little to do with you.

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Simon Jordan has a plan to save EFL clubs from the financial woes of coronavirusCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
It’s unlikely they will receive this request well.
I believe there is a simple solution to all this.
The Government can become the bank of last resort, ensuring community assets are protected by underwriting funding that’s available.
The Premier League can then pick up the interest tab for three years.
That means they don’t have enormous money to cough up, yet honour their obligations.
EFL clubs get interest-free loans, time to recover from the decimation and can introduce a raft of new controls ensuring sustainability going forward, as well as factoring in repayments.
The ‘football family’ can  put up the image that it’s a caring one.
And the Government gets to do more than simply pay lip service to the importance of sport in this country — and at no cost!
While it may be argued that football isn’t the most deserving of causes, it is part of the social fabric of this country and must be preserved.
*Listen to Simon Jordan and Jim White on talkSPORT at 10am, Monday to Thursday.

Premier League’s social distancing could kill Football League clubs says Simon Jordan More

FURIOUS Prem clubs are poised to today reject Government demands for them to pay a £250million bailout to keep the EFL alive.
And the clubs are adamant they will not back down UNLESS they are allowed to open the turnstiles and let fans return to grounds.

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Clubs are furious at Oliver Dowden’s attempts to make them pay upCredit: Getty Images – Getty

The 20 “shareholder” clubs will meet virtually to show a determined and united front after growing increasingly angry at the attempts by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to “railroad” them into stumping up the survival cash.
And the clubs believe they have extra ammunition after a cross-party group of influential MPs plus two former FA chairmen said the Government, not the Prem, had an obligation to step in and prevent the imminent “collapse” of the English league system.
Clubs at both ends of the Prem financial scale erupted in fury in the wake of Dowden’s suggestion they should “help poorer clubs rather than spend huge amounts hiring a new striker”.

Why are we expected to bail out the EFL when the Government doesn’t ask Sainsbury’s to keep the corner shops going.
One Prem chairman

The publication of a new study which predicts Prem clubs will be responsible for 99 per cent of Europe’s entire international market transfer “losses” — of £698m this summer — will add weight to Dowden’s argument.

But clubs and League chiefs privately accused Dowden and the Government of “hypocrisy” after three months of non-stop work towards the planned October 1 re-opening date, which was suddenly scrapped by PM Boris Johnson last week.
They had begun to budget for some gate income but feel the U-turn left them stranded, while it also added to the outrage of seeing themselves made a scapegoat by the Government.
One chairman pointedly said: “We had no advance notice of what was a completely ridiculous and wrong decision.
“Why are we expected to bail out the EFL when the Government doesn’t ask Sainsbury’s to keep the corner shops going? Especially when we have got nothing back in return.”

Prem chief executive Richard Masters has already stated the 20 clubs have seen £700m in income disappear.
Now those same clubs are being ordered to help fill the £250m void in EFL finances, with chairman Rick Parry confirming his 72 clubs need £20m per month between them to survive.
The Prem clubs argue that transfer fees to EFL sides have earned them some £100m this summer, with more money set to be spent before the window closes next Monday.
League bosses already agreed to forward advance “solidarity” payments to the EFL, despite their own slashed incomes.
As SunSport has revealed, the Prem clubs believe it would be wrong to simply write a cheque without cast-iron guarantees over how the money would be spent.
Some are also concerned they are effectively being asked to give money to Championship clubs who will be strengthened as rivals as a result next season.
The increasingly aggressive stance comes as the letter, co-signed by ten MPs, including former Tory Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green and ex-Wembley chiefs Lord Triesman and Greg Dyke, slammed the Government.
They said: “Without any plans being made to rescue football, this could lead not only to the failure of many historic clubs, but the collapse of the national league structure we have known for over 100 years.
“The Government needs to take responsibility.”

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