Football

EXCLUSIVE BY ROB DRAPER: Despite years of lobbying against the change, the Premier League has failed in its mission, with the regulator set to be introduced ...

Though a regulator would have power to impose a fair financial settlement, its desire to do is likely to be dependent on how talks progress between the EFL and the Premier League. However, given the huge revenues the top six derive from European football, the redistribution formula is now likely to be weighted so that the richest clubs pay the most. Parachute payments, which means clubs relegated to the Championship receive around £44 million, which softens the blow of relegation but which distorts the EFL, are already being reformed and will likely be abolished completely now a regulator is coming into play. However, the Government has concluded that the FA isn’t capable of imposing the kind of financial controls that football needs. But the Government has previously made it clear that it does not expect nor want a regulator to forge an independent position for football investment which diverges from British foreign policy. There were said to be ‘champagne corks popping at the Premier League’ who have waged a long battle against regulation, when Truss and her key advisor Jason Stein privately indicated that the regulator would be scrapped or diluted.