Football is changing faster than we might ever expect – and the results are going to be weird

We already have had it confirmed that Burnley is a bigger economic force in European football than Ajax.  And whoever comes up to the Premier League, even just for one year, will pocket £90m from broadcasting, compared to, for example Bayern Munich who got £90.1m from broadcasting last year.

They will put Paris Saint‑Germain in the shade since they only got £69.7m last year, and even with some growth in media interest in France, the bottom team in the PL will outdo PSG.

So what will this mean?

Sadly for those of us who go to football matches, not too much.  Most of the money will be soaked up in players’ salaries, and ever increasing transfer fees, and until a maximum spend on wages and transfers per club is introduced, that will continue to be the case.  A tiny amount will trickle down to the lower levels of football, and the clubs that are relegated can expect a bigger parachute payment when they go down.  And the solidarity payment to lower leagues will increase.

Community level football might get a little more, but naturally the League is wary of this use of their money since community football is the responsibility of the FA.  The FA has screwed up big time, spending fortunes on Wembley and other ill-fated schemes, like bidding for the World Cup in a bid that everyone knew was bent while failing to spend money given by the government for community schemes on… community schemes.  Now, utterly bankrupt, they have vastly increased the cost of training courses for coaches (which is why we have so few in this country) and made a third of their staff redundant.

But community football is their responsibility, and the League feels that once they start taking that on big time, the FA will just wash its hands of community football and waste even more on insane projects like Wembley and throwing money and bribes (like handbags) at Fifa and its people.

Of course the media loved it when some Man C fans protested against the cost of tickets at Arsenal, not because of the validity of the campaign (the high costs of admission mostly come because of the insanity of player wages) but because it distracted from the biggest scandal of all – changing times and dates to suit TV.

It also means that the Championship will grow in power.  Already reported by some to be the third most powerful league in the world in terms of money, more is going to be poured in as the very very rich see buying a Championship or even League One club as a route to the Premier League, even if it is for just one season.

If you note that Brighton had a turnover of around £24m last year, and would have a turnover of around £100m at least from TV rights alone in the Premier League you can see the impact the PL’s finances will have on the lower leagues.

The problem is however that the Championship clubs, recognising this, have combined debts of over £1bn – much of that debt taken up with gambling on promotion.