There has been a great deal of attention given to West Ham’s financial plight, much of it resulting from cries of woe from the owners. Blackpool spent very little in the top flight. Their best paid player was reportedly on £10,000 a week which is nothing by Premiership standards even though it might be a year’s wages for some people.
There has been a great deal of attention given to West Ham’s financial plight, much of it resulting from cries of woe from the owners. Blackpool spent very little in the top flight. Their best paid player was reportedly on £10,000 a week which is nothing by Premiership standards even though it might be a year’s wages for some people.
Arguably if Blackpool had spent a little more on their defence they would have stayed up. Manager Ian Holloway feels that the Premier League did nothing for the club. However, they did collect a year’s Premiership revenues and lived the tangerine dream. They are not in debt and over the next four years they will receive £48m in parachute payments.
Despite the enhanced parachute payments, there are increasing concerns that Birmingham City will be hardest hit by relegation. They will be in the Europa League, but this is not a big money spinner, even if they progress. Principal (although reduced) shareholder Carson Yeung wants them up again in a year but this will be difficult if the playing budget is reduced despite Alex McLeish leading them back the last time they were relegated.
It is believed that the majority of Birmingham players are contractually obliged to take a pay cut. In their first year back in the Premier League, £42m of Birmingham’s £56m turnover came from TV money. Championship clubs receive an average of £3m a year.
It could be argued that the Blues represent another example of an owner not fully delivering on the promises made when he first acquired a club because his resources turned out to be more constrained than he had anticipated. However, vice-president Peter Pannu commented in a statement that the promised injection of funds by Yeung was £40m not £80m as the media assumed.