EFL and PL cartels, and government looking for a populist cause

The jockeying for cash between English footballs two cartels is quite a sight.  The English Football League (EFL) currently earn just north of £500m a year in handouts from the Premier League (PL).  They want that figure to increase to around £900m, while enough Premier League clubs are reluctant to share more of the money they create with those down the food chain.

The football model in England is broken (not that we are a perfect example).  The PL is one of the world’s premier sporting brands.  The EFL is one of the world’s wealthiest football league structures, but the disparity between their wealth and those above them make the gap precipitous for clubs having to deal with relegation.

The PL’s decision to decline the EFL’s offer to pay them £900m a year made your Conservative government angry, apparently.  Yesterday, in stepped a prime minister in trouble and looking for a populist cause to show you he understands real people.  Maybe I’m not real people but it’s not having the desired effect on me.

The PL and the EFL operate cartels inside the UK to the economic exclusion of Scottish clubs.  This has a very real economic impact on the wider economy.  Celtic would bring in around £400m more to the Glasgow economy each year, if they were able to compete with the rest of the UK.

The last time the EFL wanted leverage in their negotiations with the PL they threatened to offer Celtic and Newco a place in their league, introducing two clubs with prospects of promotion to the Premier League itself.  The threat worked, the PL folded and the UK football market remained a fractured set of cartels.

If the government wants to genuinely protect the interests of disenfranchised clubs and supporters, breaking these cartels should be top of their agenda.  Unfortunately, they don’t have the vision or intellect to act properly.