Why half of Jack Grealish is ruining the National Game
‘A club relegated from the top flight gets £55m from the Premier League for a disastrous season. That’s more than every club in League One, League Two, the National League and Women’s football gets from the Premier League put together’
Adam Harwood
NOT literally, Jack, if you’re reading. But earlier this summer Jack Grealish’s £100m move to Manchester City acted as a reminder of one of the brutal inequalities at the heart of English football.
On this occasion – it’s not the ludicrous sums of money the Big Six (and others) have at their disposal, however. That’s been plenty well documented since the Premier League started in 1992 and when sums even of £5m were seen as utterly out of touch with wider society.
It’s the fact that a little over half of Grealish’s apparent worth - £55m in fact – is distributed directly to each of the three clubs relegated from the Premier League during their first year out of the big time alone. The prize for a year of predominantly wretched performances by Fulham, Sheffield United and West Brom last season is a mass windfall.
Initially designed with the best intentions, of ensuring that a club unable to suddenly cope with the extreme loss of TV revenue associated with a Premier League place doesn’t go to the wall in a matter of months, ‘parachute payments’ are now effectively a Golden Ticket back to the big time. Two of the three sides relegated from the Premier League two seasons ago – Norwich and Watford – took full advantage and bounced back at the first attempt, with Fulham yo-yoing between the leagues across the past three seasons.
Again, in the wider scheme of footballing matters, £55m shouldn’t sound like too big a deal. It is, at current levels, only half the value of a top player after all.
But here’s where the issue lies. The £55m received is more than the Premier League pays to the 24 clubs in League One. And the 24 residing in League Two. And the 72 sides occupying the three National League divisions. And the 12 comprising the Women’s Super League. PLUS the 12 in the second tier of the women’s game, the Championship. PUT TOGETHER.
One club receives more money from the Premier League each year than 144 others. And this happens three times over – the same number who are promoted back into the Premier League at the end of the season.
Far from being a parachute or solidarity payment, it’s essentially suggesting the Premier League is a closed book. If you’re not one of the three, keep out, we don’t want you. In particular we don’t want to encourage clubs to move up the divisions.
While the parachute payments are unfair, the distribution of what money the EFL distributes to its member clubs is nonsense.
Currently, the central pool is allocated 80% to the Championship, with League One receiving just 12% and League Two sides 8%. This doesn’t equate with average attendances, which breaks down as 60:25:15.
And that’s ignoring the fact that the women’s game and National League sides receive not a penny from the pool. A women’s game that is growing at pace, and a National League which is now regularly attracting crowds around the 5,000 mark given the presence of the likes of Stockport County, Notts County, Wrexham and Southend United.
This skewing towards the Championship still hasn’t led to sensible and sustainable financial management; however. In the 2019/20 season, the latest figures available, clubs at Tier 2 spent an average of 107% revenue on player wages.
Something has to change. Currently there are 77 different forms of accounting across the top 92 clubs in England. Things are complicated, nonsensical, and clearly unfair.
Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review of football governance is now just days away. Real sustainable change could be around the corner. If it is, everyone wins. Clubs will be able to compete on more of a level playing field knowing that it’s not just boom for the few and bust for the many.