With the regular uproar about how much elite sides are being paid to broadcast their games around the world, I had a look into some of the trickle down economics being applied, and how much each club in the lower tiers can expect to earn each year. Crewe, for example, receive around £900,000 per season from the EFL for their participation in the fourth tier of the football pyramid.
Also note that there is no ladder type system across the EFL akin to the one employed by the Premier League, where earnings are based on final league position. Last year, promoted Accrington Stanley would have received as much as relegated Barnet.
These figures are based on the current TV deal which expires at the end of the current season:
Basic award across the EFL:
Championship – £2.084m.
League 1 – £677,000.
League 2 – £472,000.
Premier League Solidarity payment across the EFL:
Championship – £4.3m
League 1 – £645,000.
League 2 – £430,000
Promotion to League One would be worth an extra £400,000 to Crewe per season, which would have almost covered last seasons losses of just over £500,000.
In addition to this, clubs in League One or Two that are broadcast live on Sky receive £30,000 per game, with the away team pocketing £10,000. This figure rockets to £100,000 per game in the Championship for home sides, and with a much higher chance of games being televised, could prove a real money spinner. Newcastle United earnt over £700,000 from broadcasted games in their promotion season.
With it now being worth over £6.3m just for taking part in the Championship, if Crewe were to ever make it back to England’s second tier, they should be able to post a healthy profit.
A good case study of this rise through the echelons of lower league football are Burton Albion, who played in League Two, League One and the Championship over the space of three consecutive seasons following back to back promotions. Their last set of accounts, which were published earlier this year, showed a £1.3m profit on their first year in the Championship.
This is a quick breakdown of their turnover (money in), expenditure (money out), and how much was spent on wages at Burton during those three seasons:
| Turnover | Expend | Wages | |
| League Two – 2014/15 | £2.7m | £3.1m | £2.6m |
| League One – 2015/16 | £4.2m | £4.2m | £3.6m |
| Championship – 2016/17 | £11.4m | £10.1m | £7.6m |
Before going any further, it should be said that Burton deserve huge plaudits for what they achieved. By rights, they should have been nowhere near the Championship. Their Pirelli Stadium holds 6,942 and only one stand is seated.
They were promoted from League One on a budget not much bigger than the one which guided Crewe to 15th place in League Two last season. Also to their credit is the emphasis on youth, bargain buys, and ability to punch well above their weight. Essentially, they did what Crewe had done in the late 1990’s through to the early 2000’s.
If we fast forward to the start of this season, with Burton in League One following relegation last year, they currently sit second bottom after two straight defeats. They released seven players in the summer, and allowed defender Tom Flanagan to join Sunderland on a free with a year left on his contract to clear him off the wage bill. So far, boss Nigel Clough has been unable to name 18 players in his match day squad. Their last signing was Elliot Hodge, a player deemed surplus to requirements at Notts County in League Two last year.
Just what has gone wrong? If you look at the figures, it is a direct result of Burton having to effectively reduce their wage bill by around £6-7m in one season. They will earn at least £5m less this year from playing in League One and have had to cut their cloth accordingly with no wealthy benefactor to bankroll their losses. Burton’s success has been a blessing, and also a curse.
In just two seasons, their wage bill rose by 300%; something that is very easy to do when you are trying to keep pace with the likes of Newcastle United, Middlesborough and Aston Villa.
The issue here is not the disparity of wealth between the Premier League and EFL, but the disparity between the Championship and the remaining tiers of English football. Should parachute payments also be introduced for those demoted to League One? There is a gap that clearly needs bridging – and fast. Otherwise, what incentive is there for clubs in a season or two of getting tanked in the Championship, the inevitable relegation, and then a three year hangover of running the club like a branch of Home & Bargain just to survive?
Burton Albion are every single small club in the country that one day dreams of challenging the big boys. Their failure only serves to emphasise the fact that we are watching a league system which has been broken, skewed, and mangled beyond recognition by the financial greed of those at the top table our national game. Will anything change? I wouldn’t put money on it.
Crewe Alexandra 