Top Premier League clubs to be handed greater portion of prize money after Everton punishment
The Premier League’s top clubs are set to be handed a greater proportion of prize money in a move reigniting tensions within the competition after Everton’s 10-point deduction for spending breaches.
Under the top tier’s existing 1.6 to one ratio, treble winners Manchester City earned an estimated £161.3 million last season while Southampton received £100.3 million as the bottom club.
However, from 2025-26 the competition’s merit-based system will be worth potentially tens of millions more for the biggest clubs under a new 1.8 to one ratio.
The calibration is said to be dictated by international growth in league revenue as well as the Consumer Prices Index. High rates of inflation mean a more favourable rate for smaller clubs next season, with insiders describing the system as “swings and roundabouts”.
However, as clubs meet to potentially vote through the long-awaited New Deal For Football on Tuesday, the eventual upward trajectory for the big clubs could be discussed, other sources say. Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have often been at odds with the other clubs over how the new solidarity system should be paid for.
Although a total of around £130 million extra per year for the lower leagues now appears close, the exact allocation of how costs will be shared between the clubs is said to remain of some debate.
Pressure is building again on the Premier League to finally announce a deal after Everton received a 10-point deduction over spending breaches.
With the club receiving its punishment just a week after the plan for a new independent regulator in English football was outlined in the King’s Speech, the the Culture, Media and Sport Committee seized on the opportunity to call for regulation to be expedited. Dame Caroline Dinenage, its chair, said the Everton verdict illustrated “that the status quo cannot continue”. “I repeat my call for the Government to urgently introduce the Football Governance Bill, as announced in the King’s Speech, to enable a statutory independent regulator to be in place as soon as possible,” she added.
Despite some lingering reservations, there does appear to be broad support in the game at the Premier League’s long-awaited New Deal to fend off more radical restrictions from Government. With the Football Association also consulted, the biggest financial shake-up in decades had been years in the making and the EFL had initially been seeking 25 per cent of pooled media revenues from the Premier League in the new financial settlement.
However, in return for a major uplift on funding, the EFL is largely happy with the final package. Teams to go down will also be allowed to spend on wages and transfers at 85 per cent of revenue. That level of spending was secured initially to allow smaller clubs in the top tier compete with the so-called big six as Uefa’s new 70 per cent cap began.
Existing Championship teams, however, will be restricted to 70 per cent in return for receiving increased solidarity payments. To counter concerns of unfairness, the EFL has negotiated a so-called “equity top up” as part of the deal. One source estimates that add-on would amount to another 20 per cent of spending.
With the final details once again to be talked through by the clubs on Tuesday, one insider said the deal is now “on the runway”. Campaign group Fair Game has criticised the focus on payments based on league position, saying they “increased the incentive to overspend”.
Ruben Neves’ potential loan to Newcastle could also be scuppered at Tuesday’s meeting, with clubs set to vote through fast-tracking a ban on such deals between associated clubs. It is claimed privately that the measure is not specifically designed to stop Newcastle signing Neves. Talks continue over long-term solutions.
The Premier League defines a related party as having “material influence over the club or (being) an entity in the same group of companies as the club”.
