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Premier League clubs have been asked to support a £44m up-front payment to their lower league counterparts in the latest attempt to secure a landmark funding settlement for the future of English football.
Sky News has learnt that top-flight clubs were asked to indicate at a Premier League shareholder meeting on Tuesday whether they would support an immediate payment within a wider package that could be worth less than originally envisaged.
Sources said the idea was not put to a formal vote of clubs, meaning that the ‘New Deal’ remains elusive despite months of intensive talks aimed at mitigating the threat of a funding solution that could be imposed by a new independent football regulator.
According to several sources briefed on the talks, clubs were canvassed on whether a £44m up-front payment to the English Football League (EFL) would gain their support as part of an overall six-year settlement worth about £875m
An earlier blueprint had suggested that the New Deal would be worth £915m to the EFL.
The continuing stalemate reflects the fact that the new funding arrangements would be subject to clubs’ approval of future financial controls throughout the professional football pyramid, as well as agreement on how the 20 top-flight clubs – which include Arsenal, Burnley, Liverpool and Manchester United – would divide the cost between them.
Tuesday’s meeting came just a fortnight after another shareholder summit ended without meaningful progress.
In a statement after the latest gathering broke up, the Premier League made no reference to the discussions on the New Deal, announcing instead that rules on player registration cost amortisation would be reduced to a five-year maximum in line with UEFA rules.
It also said shareholders had approved a rule change to prevent clubs from signing players where transfer payments to other English clubs remain outstanding.
It was unclear how the Premier League intended to proceed with the New Deal negotiations following the latest discussions with its clubs.
Pressure has been growing on the Premier League to reconcile emerging fractures on critical issues of financial and sporting integrity, even after it signed a £6.7bn four-ytear domestic broadcast rights deal with Sky, the immediate parent company of Sky News.
Some club executives from outside the ‘big six’ – comprising Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – have been issuing private warnings that the proposed New Deal settlement could cause serious financial damage to them.
At least one club in the league’s bottom half is understood to have raised the prospect of having to borrow money this year to fund its prospective share of the handout to the EFL.
Proposals for a bespoke licensing regime floated by the government has created distinct unease among a number of Premier League clubs, some of which believe that the New Deal should remain unsigned until there is greater clarity about how the regulator will operate.
Executives have also expressed disquiet over the absence of conditions attached to the funding, while pointing to the absence of an internal agreement about how the financing would be split between the 20 clubs.
Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, has talked since the summer about reaching a swift resolution to the New Deal, and had hoped to put it to a formal vote last month.
Under a blueprint outlined to clubs during the autumn and revealed by Sky News, the New Deal would run for six years, with the deal worth £190m to the EFL in the 2028-29 season, the final 12 months of the period.
The funding for lower-league clubs would be in addition to existing annual solidarity payments of £110m and further funds earmarked for youth development.
In June, MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee said the Premier League and EFL should urgently reach agreement on the provision of funding throughout the English football pyramid, or have a settlement imposed on them by the new regulator.
“Unless the football authorities get their act together soon on agreeing a fairer share of revenue, we risk more clubs collapsing, with the devastating impact that can have on local communities,” Dame Caroline Dinenage, the committee chair, said.
In a white paper published earlier this year, the government said: “The current distribution of revenue is not sufficient, contributing to problems of financial unsustainability and having a destabilising effect on the football pyramid.
The document highlighted a £4bn chasm between the combined revenues of Premier League clubs and those of Championship clubs in the 2020-21 season.
The impetus for a new regulator has gathered pace since the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election manifesto, with Rishi Sunak pledging to continue reforms set in motion under Boris Johnson.
The Premier League declined to comment on Tuesday.
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