The Premier League’s £1.5billion EFL funding plan hangs in the balance ahead of Thursday’s vite.
That is according to former Everton chief executive and ex-Premier League board member Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that the proposed deal is currently at a “50-50” stage.
Top-flight clubs are set to meet for a vote on the proposal on Thursday, with 14 of the 20 clubs needing to be in favour for the deal to be passed over the EFL.
Wyness believes that the league are hopeful that it will go through, as they do not want the independent football regulator to get involved and dictate the level of funding.
The deal is proposing a £1.5billion funding package for clubs in the EFL across the next 10 years, and will be funded by an increase from four per cent to six per cent in terms of the levy placed on domestic transfers.
However, Wyness has warned that Premier League clubs will also be concerned about how the money will be spent in the EFL.
New EFL deal ‘in the balance’ as vote imminent
Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that the proposed deal is “right in the balance” ahead of Thursday’s vote.
The Scottish businessman explained that the figures that could be paid to the EFL are not actually that substantial, despite the eye-watering headline number.
Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, he explained why many top-flight clubs will have concerns.
“It’s right in the balance actually, and there’s still a lot of unhappiness about the actual structure that is there. Look, £1.5bn over 10 years is not a huge amount of money if you look at it spread over the EFL clubs,” Wyness said.
“The big issue has always been, and why the Premier League have fought this, is that they always believed that this money would just come straight into the EFL clubs and it would be wasted on just increased inflation in players’ wages.
“So they’ve tried to put in some safeguards here, like 20 per cent of the money must be spent on infrastructure. I think some safeguards would be more helpful to improve facilities for fans and academies.
“There’s talk of how it’s going to be funded in terms of moving the transfer levy up from four per cent to six per cent. That’s where the money would come from, and that will go into the kitty to then go into paying the clubs.
“One reason why the Premier League may pass it and why it could go in favour of it passing is that they don’t want the independent football regulator getting too involved in this right now.
“It’s got a 50-50 chance of getting through right now. My gut feeling is if I were still on the Premier League board, I would probably be voting against this right now because I don’t think there are enough safeguards to make sure the money’s spent wisely in the EFL.
“It’s a big issue. As I say, it’s right in the balance, and I think on balance, it may fail, but we’ll see how the vote goes. But there are reasons why it could go either way.”
Keith Wyness explains further parachute payment issue
Wyness also told Football Insider earlier this week that the potential reduction to parachute payments also poses a major issue to the proposed new deal.
Teams who are relegated into the Championship currently receive around £100million in funding across a three-year period, but the new deal could reduce that to level the playing field.
Wyness believes that article could cause the deal to fail, as he believes the entire bottom half of the Premier League will worry about losing the “safety net” of the parachute payments.
Clubs are set to review the proposal and cast their votes on Thursday, which has the potential to be a pivotal day for the footballing pyramid.
