The Championship 2020-21

Let’s be honest muff or coming back up with us

All three promoted
All three relegated
All three promoted again

only good thing about muff coming back up is we will get more money next year as the PL won’t need to pay the muff 2nd year parachute payment

 

0-3 now. Simms again, he looks a good player.

Game over probably.

 

The "home crowd" advantage not really working in the playoffs so far.

Only muff have won so far and I wouldn't describe what they had in their stadium as a "crowd", certainly not a noisy one anyway!

 

I thought it was shared in that scenario amongst the champ clubs?

 

A bit of a bitter pill to swallow, putting in all that work to get in the play-offs on the last day only to practically lose them at the first hurdle.

But Pompey must be feeling even worse, they knew they had to beat Accrington at home to stay in the play-offs and they bottled it (and to think some of us wanted Danny Cowley!).

 

I don’t think it’s clear. Apparently the PL have an algorithm that works on the basis of a certain number of clubs coming back up over a given deal and the numbers already work on that basis. On the other hand when this has happened before (or maybe it was just 2 clubs if it had never happened before?) there was a campaign to get it redistributed to the EFL which apparently worked. This is all based on a discussion on Talk Sport the other day and apparently Simon Jordan lead the campaign the first time around. The short version is the PL will do what they want with the money, but have previously given it to the EFL. on the occasion that something similar happened before, but not without pressure first.

We’re talking about £150m, which is 7.5m per club if split equally, but I don’t think it’s that simple and it’s where this supposed algorithm comes in, because as rare as it is for all three clubs to come straight back up, it’s probably equally rare for all three clubs to stay down for three seasons as well, but equally will happen from time to time also. In other words if that does happen, do premier league clubs then get £150m less as a result? So this variance is probably already allowed for in terms of what they might save as a best case and pay out as a worst case.

I believe the latest TV deal included an extra £100m for the EFL anyway, so I very much doubt on that basis Bournemouth getting promoted will make any difference to us regardless of who gets the money, as that £100m will have had to have come from somewhere so it’s swings and roundabouts.

 

I have to say, despite the surge in enthusiasm from us being promoted and our amazing run from feb-the international break, it's been an incredibly dull season.

One real drubbing handed out, but apart from that, a series of attritional, narrow wins where an error or moment of individuality has won the day.

The brawl at the end of the game where pedro was sent off was the other monent.

Maybe it's the lack of fans, but it's been a season devoid of highlights IMO.

 

I think fans has a lot to do with it, as well as having an influence on the game itself. I’d given up watching Premier League games a few months back, but enjoyed watching a couple yesterday with crowds.

 

It seems a bit unclear. My post above is based on a conversation they had about it on Talk Sport once we got promoted.

Lots of articles saying it will be redistributed amongst PL clubs, but no official sources to actually substantiate that.

If the money is redistributed then you can only assume they budget for the worst case and then if clubs bounce back up before year three then any money is redistributed.

In normal years it’s probably not enough to even warrant discussion, as it’s rare for one team let alone two or three to bounce back.

There is definitely a campaign to get it redistributed to the EFL, and that will gather pace if Bournemouth go up too, but with the extra £100m given to the EFL as part of the latest TV deal I can’t see it happening.

 

On paper at least it's redistributed between the PL clubs. The PL rules define a 'relegated club' for the purposes of the parachute payments which comes from the overall pot. And as of 1 July we cease us and Norwich cease to be 'relegated clubs' and so it's simply case that the money that would have been earmarked for us never leaves the overall pot for 21/22.

There's nothing to stop the PL clubs changing that or making an exception but it won't happen automatically.

 

Agreed. Without the fans it's lost all emotion and meaning. I record all the TV highlights programs and then at end of the season spend a couple of hours dumping all the watford 3 mins highlights onto one or two dvds. Despite the promotion I'm not sure I'll ever watch this season's dvds again. The only highlights were the action and reaction at the end of the Cardiff game, the goals vs Norwich and reaction at the end, and the celebration at the end of the Millwall game. I often watch the 14/15 season highlights as there are so many moments of emotion shared between team and fans, culminating in the Vydra goal at Brighton and fan reaction.

 

We might yet need that parachute money for 22/23!

 

All three bouncing back has never happened before since they introduced 3 up 3 down in 1973/74.

As for all three not returning within 3 years happens reasonably frequently. Our relegation in 2000, we went down with Wednesday and Wimbledon who neither have ever returned, we took 6 years. In 2007 we came down with Charlton and Sheffield United, we didn't return until 2015 and Sheffield in 2019.

 

So they must budget for the worst case and presumably if a couple of clubs do bounce back it’s a bonus. I think as UEA pointed out in another post, the cynic in me believes the focus on parachute payments has only come about because two unfashionable clubs have bounced straight back, and equally because two clubs have bounced back the sums involved have brought it to the forefront and given the EFL more leverage in raising it.

Last season only Fulham bounced straight back I believe, so they would’ve saved about £45m, plus without the full impact of covid nobody would’ve given it a second thought.

 

It’s also very rare for all three promoted clubs to stay up in the Prem (happens much more frequently in the lower divisions) but there was a notable case when Fulham, Blackburn and Bolton after being promoted in 2000/01 stayed up for 13, 11 and 11 years respectively. They achieved impressive things too during that run, qualifying for the UEFA Cup/Europa League several times between them, and Blackburn won the League Cup and most remarkably Fulham got to the EL final, achieved their highest league position and easily beat their record longest stay in the top flight.

Clearly those clubs overachieved though, Fulham are now a yo-yo club (and have needed the play-offs on both occasions, a far cry from Jean Tigana’s awesome old Division 1 title-winning side), Blackburn look in danger of becoming another Derby or Forest, and Bolton have just come up from League 2.

 

The recent history is for 2 of the 3 promoted clubs to be relegated, with the biggest clubs, with the pull and resources, to survive eg AV, Leeds, Wolves...

 

Only 1 out of 3 last season.

 

Yes the exception that proves the rule . Only for one season of course before the spectacular collapse this season.
Just shows how important the first few games are. A couple of good results and the confidence from the promotion season continues, morale is great, confidence in teammates and manager floods through the squad, wins bring more wins etc. 4 or 5 bad results at the start can be difficult to recover from, win the next game and you are still in deep trouble...

 

Maybe it's more of a Covid thing. The last time the two automatic spots were taken by relegated sides was in 2010, I don't remember whether parachute payments were brought up at the time.

 

Desperately want Muff to go up otherwise their boys brigade army will have no rivals to fight over social media. Plus it's the only guaranteed away ticket I can get.

 

It’s definitely 100% Covid, which all the people shrieking about parachute payments somehow fail to appreciate. It’s odd that something that happens so very rarely is being blamed on something that exists every season, yet coincidentally we had a global pandemic the first time it happened.

We’ve kept players we would’ve otherwise lost because other clubs didn’t have the money to buy them or where not prepared to throw money around so freely, while simultaneously, championship clubs have lost almost all of their income so have been completely unable to compete financially.

I think one other slight factor as far as Norwich are concerned is the fact they kept Farke. It’s something that almost always never happens and the consistency has probably helped massively... alongside Covid enabling them to keep players like Buendia who would’ve otherwise been a relatively cheap gamble for a PL club pre-Covid.

 

I don't think parachute payments ever really had as much scrutiny as we're seeing now. For a long time they've been an accepted part of English football. So much so, the EFL copies that model and bungs extra cash at clubs relegated between its division and pays a bonus to the clubs heading down to the National League too. It makes sense to soften the blow and rather than a reward for failure, for years it has been seen (rightly in my view) as an incentive to invest/compete.

And while there's no problem with scrutiny, that only applies if it's being done in good faith. But this isn't.

The simple fact is none of the whining owners/clubs would ever turn down parachute payments. I think the biggest reason they've now chattering about it is the spending power of Championship clubs has diminished massively in the last 2-3 years due to their profligacy and now Covid. Debt has ballooned and they're in a hole now where they can't even compete for the £3/4m-level signings from Scotland or the continent that are usually the mainstay of a Championship-level side. Given a choice between fronting up to their fans and admitting to the scale of the massive hole most of these big name Championship clubs are in or blaming the parachute payment boogie man, they're unsurprisingly choosing the latter.

 

Who’s Parachute Payment Boogie by? I’m a bit behind on the latest Northern Soul scene.

 

It's by Rick Parry and the Whiners.

 

would probably be fairer but I think I saw it in one of the papers

 

I was wondering if there was something similar in the lower divisions, probably explains why Rotherham keep bouncing back up and (for the first time I believe) all three clubs relegated from the Championship in 2016/17 bounced back up at the first time of asking. Is this a relatively recent thing or has it been going on for quite some time?

 

Going by this, more than 5 years:

https://www.efl.com/news/2015/november/league-increases-parachute-payments-to-relegated-clubs/

It’s obviously worth pointing out these parachutes are chump change compared to the PL ones. But it’s the principle.

 

Parachute payments allow clubs to compete without total instant ruination if they fail to retain the status. After all Watford and Bournemouth got promoted without the benefit of parachute payments. As did Leeds. Norwich and WBA seem to have used them most to underpin promotion campaigns.

 

I assume parachute payments have only been a thing since 1992. Either way this season was the first time we got promoted to the top flight while benefitting from them.

 

Parachute payments have been around since 2006, this is the first time I can remember there being such a fuss around them. That is mainly because it is two unfashionable clubs bouncing straight back, ignoring the fact irrelevant of the size of the club it very rarely happens. Covid of course has stretched EFL club finances to the limit as well so anything that can be scrutinised and blamed will be.

The EFL suggestion of scrapping Parachute Payments and giving 25% of the TV revenue to the EFL instead is not a bad idea, but can you really see the Premier League giving up 25% of its revenue, why would it?

It would also need to be the case that the money would be distributed along the lines of first place championship club receiving something like £40/£50m and then dropping from there to truly bridge the gap properly, but can the EFL really be trusted to do that.

The other issue then is it would potentially bring back the very problem Parachute Payments helped to partly solve. This would not be guaranteed money but rather merit based, therefore promoted clubs could still face financial ruin if they get relegated and finish 12th, and/or promoted clubs would be less inclined to take this risk and you get an uncompetitive premier league and everyone essentially suffers in the end.

 

They've been around longer than that. We got them for 2 seasons after going down in 2000.

 

I googled it and that’s what Wiki came up with, didn’t delve any deeper than that, maybe some of the EFL clubs have been editing the page:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_parachute_and_solidarity_payments

 

Yep. Weirdly though, I also seem to remember us getting some sort of payments in 2000.

 

Me too MD. I had a quick look for the club accounts and they're referred to in there.

Page 4 here:

shorturl.at/rxyDG