Sources: Talks breakthrough as £45m Liverpool payout on the cards
Liverpool and other leading Premier League clubs could soon pay out an extra £45million per year in solidarity payments over the course of a three-year cycle, Football Insider has learned.
There is increasing confidence among senior figures at EFL clubs that a financial redistribution deal will be agreed before the introduction of an independent regulator.
This gamechanging move will change the dynamic amid concerns more clubs outside of the top flight will go bust – Huddersfield Town are the latest with administration fears – without greater assistance from the elite.
The two most powerful bodies in English football have been in talks for months about a potential shake-up to the way cash filters down through the pyramid.
Further urgency was injected into the talks in February after the government laid out its plans for an independent football regulator, which will have the power to impose its own financial model.
The EFL wants a 25 per cent cut of Premier League TV cash, a significant increase on the 16 per cent they currently receive and one which they believe is necessary for non-top-flight clubs to be financially sustainable.
The mood among those with first-hand knowledge of the situation has lurched between optimism and pessimism, but EFL sources have told Football Insider that there is now a belief that the discussions are reaching their end game.
Signficant structural change could be enacted as a result – the EFL wants parachute payment abolished while most of the Premier League is keen to see domestic cup competitions stripped back.
The Premier League’s TV deal is worth over £10billion over its current three-year cycle, taking into account both the domestic and the overseas rights.
If the EFL successfully secure a nine per cent increase in solidarity payments, that will equate to an extra £900m per rights cycle.
That means that each Premier League club will contribute an extra £45m every three years, assuming an even distribution between top-flight clubs.
That is by no means a formality, as different factions within the Premier League argue that the redistribution cost should be weighted proportionate to league position.
Such a system could see the likes of Liverpool, who earned more in TV cash than any other side in 2021-22, pay more than the £45m even share.
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