Rick Parry's Middlesbrough example as he talks importance of Premier League redistribution deal

EFL chairman Rick Parry has used Middlesbrough to highlight why he believes the EFL and Premier League need to come to an agreement on the redistribution of money.

The two governing bodies have been in negotiations over how money from the Premier League filters down the divisions in order to protect the pyramid. Parry wants 25% of the top flight's media revenue, which he says will end the need for parachute payments which are making the Championship uncompetitive, and also remove what he calls 'the cliff edge', ie the ever-growing gulf between England's top two flights.

Thus far, there are no signs that an agreement will be reached, with the hope being that a new independent regulator proposed for football - something Parry says the EFL will welcome - could instead enforce a new deal. However, with Government dissolving for the upcoming general election before the Football Governance Bill was passed, there is no guarantee the independent regulator will happen, with the Football Supporters Association appealing for both Conservative and Labour to pledge in their manifestos to implement the previously proposed bill.

READ MORE: The Football Governance Bill, the general election delay and how it could impact Middlesbrough

On the issues facing the EFL, Parry, who was the first CEO of the Premier League, told the Sports Agents podcast: "I’m both fearful and optimistic. I am an eternal optimist, which is why I took the role at the EFL. The pyramid really matters but if we want to preserve it then we do have to change a few things. That’s been my purpose over the past four or five years and we’ve had various attempts.

"We’ve embraced the fan-led review and said, this has to be a catalyst for change. When I was first involved in the Premier League deal, the turnover of the Premier League - not the clubs the actual limited company in the first year was £45 million, whereas in the Football League it was £34 million - a gap of just £11m. Now, the gap has gone from £11m to £3 billion.

"It was never the intention to leave the Football League behind. The gulf is bigger than ever, and we have one primary concern, that is: the cliff edge - the gap between the bottom of the Premier League and the top of the Championship. Now, certainly for the none-parachute clubs, that figure is £100m and is an incredibly difficult bridge to gap.

"What we’re saying is, we’re all for sporting jeopardy - that’s what the game is. But what we need is sporting jeopardy without financial catastrophe, and that means on the way up or the way down. What we want to do is half the cliff edge so that clubs aren’t at the risk of busting themselves when they do go up.

"We think the parachute is just a completely bogus solution. We’ve got three clubs with wage budgets of £60-80m and the others are bouncing around at roughly £20m. How are they supposed to compete? The answer is, they can’t.”

It's a problem that Boro have found in recent years having not utilised their parachute payments wisely back in 2017. Without the top-up payments from the Premier League for the past four seasons, Boro have made the play-offs only once. In that time, an average of two of the three promoted clubs have been in receipt of parachute payments that are estimated to be worth just shy of £50m each next season for the three clubs coming down.

Tha gap isn't just a problem for competition in the EFL, however, with fears that the gap between the two divisions will lead to increasing trends like last season where the three sides who went up - Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town - came straight back down. Not only were they relegated, they had the lowest accumulation of points from a relegated trio in Premier League history.

Using Boro in his example of why redistribution is both important and fair, Parry continued: “We should be hanging our heads in shame within football that we need an independent regulator and that we couldn’t just sort it ourselves. We’ve had 30 years to do it. We welcome independent regulation, but if you don’t get redistribution right you will just regulate clubs out of existence.

"It’s incredibly difficult because there’s too much self-interest. It’s understandable; people in the Premier League are concerned with staying in it. What we’re looking for is a 75-25% split of the media revenue, which will wipe out the losses of our clubs, half the cliff edge and eliminate the need for the parachute.

"I actually think the problem is not so much the bigger clubs, but those towards the bottom half, fighting to stay in the Premier League. If you look at the 14 non-permanent members of the Premier League, on average, they have been in the Premier League for 13 years each, which means they’ve been in the EFL for 19 years since the Premier League’s inception.

"If you look at the 14 clubs in the EFL who’ve been in the Premier League for the longest spells - so your Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Bolton etc - they’ve also, on average, been in the Premier League for 13 years. It’s exactly the same and therefore, what we’re saying is, over the years, they have contributed equally to the success and the build-up of the Premier League. But those 14 in the Premier League will get £1.9 billion between them this year. The 14 who are with us for the time being will get £90 million, in comparison.”