Simon Jordan has revealed his plan to solve the financial imbalance in English football, and help cash-strapped lower league clubs survive the coronavirus crisis.
The former Crystal Palace chairman has made no secret of his scathing opinion about the current climate of football and the lack of action taken to help struggling clubs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jordan has previously warned that the English game could go into ‘meltdown’, claiming up to 80 per cent of clubs in the country could go bust unless the game’s top earners lend a helping hand to those lower down the pyramid.
The talkSPORT pundit has also slammed Premier League clubs for opting in to the government’s furlough scheme instead of paying staff out of their own pockets, called footballers who don’t want to take pay cuts a ‘disgrace’, and recently branded the modern game ‘an insidious, nasty, ghastly little carousel’ of making money.
He never has been one to mince his words.
The former club owner has also insisted things MUST change to address the unsustainability of the national game, which he believes ‘has been allowed to get out of control’.
And on Sunday’s Final Word he brought to the table his new idea to redistribute the incredible wealth of English football.
His plan includes stopping parachute payments to relegated clubs and a salary cap in the Championship, and he firmly believes it will make a huge difference and help protect the future of the nation’s sport.
Explaining his idea on Sunday’s Final Word, Jordan said: “En masse football in this country brings in £8.4billion.
“Under this [current] regime the Premier League takes 80 per cent and gives 20 per cent to the Football League. On top of that the Premier League pays £400million every three years in solidarity to the Football League, and every three years it also pays £450m – £150m per year – in parachute payments to the Premier League clubs that get relegated.
“But my idea is to take back that £850m so the Premier League leaves itself in an almost neutral position, or is even maybe out of pocket by £100m over three years, a couple of million for every club.
“Then, £7bn of that £8.4bn is given to the Premier League, so it looks like it’s taking a billion-pound pay cut, but it isn’t.
“Then what happens if you recapitalise the Football League – the Football League takes that remaining £1.4bn and gives 75 per cent to the Championship, gives 15 per cent to League One and 10 per cent to League Two.
“That moves the Championship up from £7m a year in TV broadcasting money to £15m; you bridge the gap so the pain becomes less, it’s more manageable, you whack in a salary cap so that people can have decent spends in that division but now have proper revenues.
“You also double the money in League One and League Two so the same happens there.
“And you’ve brought about a proposal that is redistributing money with no cost implication to the Premier League but gives the football pyramid an opportunity to survive.
“The Premier League takes the benefit of youth development because a lot of the Football League clubs have very good youth development policies with young players coming through that Premier League clubs get to plunder at times.
“And all the investment that goes around the community of all 72 clubs brings a sustainability.”
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