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Exclusive: Championship clubs pushing for key aims of 'Project Big Picture' to be revived

General view inside the stadium with the EFL play-offs board ahead of the Sky Bet Championship Play Off Final match between Brentford and Fulham  - Getty Images
General view inside the stadium with the EFL play-offs board ahead of the Sky Bet Championship Play Off Final match between Brentford and Fulham - Getty Images

Championship clubs are pressing England's big six to revive key aims of 'Project Big Picture' as the Premier League races to produce its alternative vision for the pyramid by Christmas.

A tug-of-war over the future of the English game is intensifying again in the coming weeks as key figures at the heart of separate reform plots launch fresh lobbying campaigns for support.

The Premier League is inviting the Football League to be part of a strategic review it announced in response to Telegraph Sport revelations that Liverpool and Manchester United were plotting sweeping changes.

However, the vast majority of Championship clubs remain sold on the headline principles of PBP, most of all the pioneering plan to carve out 25 per cent of top tier revenue to the lower leagues and sign off an immediate £250million bail-out.

Both those proposals are seen as a non-starter for the top tier's planned blueprint - expected by the New Year - because the 14 smaller clubs would end up with a smaller slice of the pie.

As a result, EFL clubs face a race against time to persuade the big six clubs to end their reticence in going public with an endorsement for the merits of PBP, now in its 18th draft.

The EFL itself is keeping options open, having also signalled initial support for a third plan, fronted by former FA chairman David Bernstein and former England defender Gary Neville. The centre-piece of that proposal is the creation of an independent regulator who would oversee the distribution of a levy on Premier League broadcast income that would be used to close the current financial chasm with the rest of English football all the way down to the grassroots.

However, preference in the Championship is firmly with the more advanced aims of PBP. Among those to come out in  strong support earlier this month was Peter Ridsdale, the former Leeds United chairman who is now advising Preston North End, who said the proposals were a “unique opportunity”.

“There was almost unanimous support for the proposals, and that has not dimmed in the intervening weeks, although there is an acceptance that PBP is damaged as a concept," said one source close to talks.

There is frustration among those clubs that United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City have been silent since being lobbied by Premier League chairman Gary Hoffman, and his chief executive, Richard Masters, at a crunch meeting two days after the Telegraph expose.

The league chiefs' intervention, on Tuesday March 13, proved crucial in stopping Liverpool, in particular, from putting up much of a fight as PBP was effectively vetoed by the rest of the league at a shareholders' summit the next day.

Instead, the top tier announced plans to review the "future structures and financing of English football" while offering a £50m loans and grant package to Leagues One and Two in the intervening period.

The Championship was left reeling by the offer, and talks between the two competitions remain unresolved, even after the Premier League clubs met again this week to discuss the issue. David Baldwin, the EFL's outgoing chief executive, is in regular contact with Masters, over a potential fresh offer.

EFL chairman Rick Parry - PA
EFL chairman Rick Parry - PA

Rick Parry, the EFL chairman who played a key role in cheerleading for PBP before it was torpedoed, on Wednesday turned his frustrations over the league's financial plight on Government. In a letter to Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, he said football clubs are being “victimised” by the “unfair” refusal to provide financial support while ministers dish out hundreds of millions to the arts.

"While football grounds in Rochdale, Grimsby, Mansfield and Carlisle might seem an awful long way from Glyndebourne or the Royal Ballet, they are nonetheless equally import parts of our nation’s heritage," he wrote, underlining the EFL's request for relief on PAYE payments to HMRC.

Andy Pilley, the Fleetwood Town chairman, revealed how eight EFL clubs "would have not been able to pay their staff in October" without a "rapidly dwindling" emergency loan support pot the league has in place.

"By Christmas, 20 EFL clubs will be on the edge of extinction" without Government help, he warned.

Meanwhile, the big six clubs were on Wednesday night dismissing fresh rumblings of a European Super League, this time prompted by outgoing Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu saying his club was joining it. Fifa said it is not aware of any agreement for Barca to join a £4.6bn European Premier League first mooted by Real Madrid.