Premiership-Football League gulf

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In English football, the Premiership-Football League gulf is a term used to describe the increase in the financial differences between clubs from the Premier League and The Football League since the First Division clubs broke away to form the Premier League in 1992. Some have argued that this disparity is wider than in other European leagues where the top flight is combined with at least one division below in a league, such as the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga.

Since the Premier League began as the FA Premier League at the start of the 1992–93 season, its member teams have received larger amounts of money in TV rights than their Football League colleagues. Prior to the formation of the Premier League, television revenues from top flight matches were shared between the 92 League clubs. The break away of 22 clubs to form the Premier League resulted in top flight revenues being shared exclusively between Premier League clubs.[1]. The FA Premier League agreed to maintain the promotion and relegation of three clubs with the Football League, but The Football League was now in a far weaker position - without its best clubs and without the clout to negotiate high revenue TV deals. This problem was exacerbated in 2002 when ITV Digital, holder of TV rights for The Football League, went into administration. Many League clubs had invested in ground improvements and the player transfer market with anticipated television funds that never materialized, with several close to collapse.

As a result, financial disparity has been cited as a reason for newly promoted teams finding it increasingly harder to establish themselves in the Premiership, thus worrying more about avoiding relegation than winning the title. The Premiership relegation places have been filled by at least one newly promoted club in all but one of the 13 seasons since its introduction, and in the 1997–98 season all three clubs were relegated. The only exception was the 2001-02 season, in which all three promoted teams survived and as of 2008–09, are still in the Premiership.

The Premier League distributes a small portion of its television revenue to clubs that are relegated from the league in the form of "parachute payments". Starting with the 2006-07 season, these payments are in the amount of £6.5 million over the club's first two seasons in lower leagues.[2] Though designed to help teams adjust to the loss of television revenues (the average Premier League team receives £45 million while the average Football League Championship club recevies £1 million[2]), critics maintain that the payments actually widen the gap between teams that have reached the Premiership and those that have not[3], leading to the common occurrence of teams returning soon after their relegation. This, however, does not take into account former Premiership mainstays which currently are in The Football League, such as Wimbledon (now defunct), Southampton, Coventry City and Leeds United, who were founding members of the Premiership and stayed there for 10 years or more before going down.

The payments have been also criticised as causing Premiership teams to play more cautiously—playing not to lose instead of playing to win—because the threat of relegation means the loss of payments from the television rights. In fact, as of December 2006, the goals-per-game average is only 2.14, the lowest it has ever been in Premiership history and lower than any other professional league in Europe. Steve Bruce, at the time manager of Birmingham City, stated that,

“ It's a results business... The Championship is very entertaining at the moment because about 12 clubs think they can win it. In the Premiership you've got 12 clubs shit-scared of relegation, and that's the difference.[4] ”

The Curse of Christmas refers to a trend where the team at the bottom of the table at Christmas has been relegated at the end of the season every year except one (2004/05 West Bromwich Albion) since the Premiership started in 1992.[1] The momentous achievement has since been dubbed 'The Great Escape' due to its improbability, particularly as West Brom were still bottom of the league on the morning of the last day of the season.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Football goes to market. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
  2. ^ a b Rich clubs forced to give up a sliver of the TV pie. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
  3. ^ Why clubs may risk millions for riches at the end of the rainbow. Retrieved on 2006-08-13.
  4. ^ Wilson, Paul (3 December, 2006). Where have all the goals gone?. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.