The bosses of the Premier League and the English Football League (EFL) had secret talks aimed at relaunching an agreement on the scale of industry before the launch of the new government’s football guard dog.
Sky News learned that Richard Masters, Managing Director of the Premier League, his efl counterpart, Trevor Birch, and club leaders such as Arsenal, Brentford, West Ham, Lincoln City, Norwich City and Preston North End met this week to discuss a large agreement from the football industry.
Sources said this weekend that the meeting was a new attempt at key sport players to conclude an agreement on financial redistribution, its annual calendar, its sharing of resources and other key problems before the independent football regulator (IFR) was officially established.
One of them said that an agreement would send a powerful signal to the ministers that English football was able to self -regulate in the best interest of all its main stakeholders.
The key to any agreement between the Premier League and the EFL would be the so-called New Deal, who has been under discussion for years, but who has stalled in the past 12 months.
Although no official proposal has never been submitted by the elite, a detailed plan involved a total of 925 million pounds of additional funding submitted by the Premier League to the EFL over a period of six years.
The most recent plan included a provision for an immediate payment of 44 million pounds sterling with lower leagues, followed by 44 million additional sterling pounds in a few months.
This 88 million pounds sterling was however presented as a loan which would be reimbursable by the EFL over a period of more than six years.
The Premier League had decided to make the vote independent of all the conditions attached to a broader financial reform of English football, alarming a certain number of high -level owners.
The high flight of English football already gives 1.6 billion sterling pounds to the rest of English professional football every three years under a “persistent leaves” agreement.
Since the latest detailed negotiations of the New Deal took place between the Premier League clubs, the EFL concluded a more lucrative five -year dissemination agreement with Sky Sports, which is part of the same property structure as Sky News.
A source suggested that this meant that a future offer of the elite was unlikely to be as large as the last advance in 2023.
Other discussions are supposed to be probable after Monday’s meeting, which, according to an initiate, had been “constructive”.
The legislation to establish the IFR progresses by the Parliament.
Sky News revealed earlier this month that Christian Purslow, former managing director of Aston Villa and Liverpool, and president of the Presidency Sanjay Bhandari, were two of the three candidates on the restricted list to preside over the IFR.
The identity of the other is not clear.
The Premier League and EFL clubs have argued that the watchdog will impose unnecessary and unsustainable costs, and that its creation arrives at a time when the government of Sir Keir Starmer is trying to reduce the regulatory burden of the private sector in order to stimulate economic growth.
Football leaders have also complained that national insurance increases announced in Rachel Reeves’ budget last October will also have a seriously prejudicial impact on sport finances.
Clubs argue that they were also blocked by post-Brexit immigration rules that have imposed restrictions on trading and players’ development.
This weekend, the Premier League and the EFL refused to comment.