EFL chairman claims Premier League 'fat cats' have ignored 'desperate' lower league clubs

The Premier League 'fat cats' have been accused of putting 'their hands in the sand' and ignoring the plight of EFL clubs by Gillingham chairman Paul Scally.

At a Premier League summit last Friday, the 20 top flight clubs agreed to advance £125m to the EFL but that money was already owed to lower league clubs in the form of solidarity payments, parachute payments and academy grants.

Scally believes that money is nowhere near enough with numerous clubs in the EFL risking financial meltdown if the football season does not resume any time soon.

He told the Mirror: “All the Premier League has done is forward us our own money and, alright, that helps the cash flow for now. But I’m still not sure on what the conditions are yet because these things are never quite what they seem.

“The proposals don’t mean anything because all the Premier League is doing is advancing the money. I think football should look after football. The fat cats are just looking after themselves.

“Talk is cheap and let’s see what the detail. But all it is an advance - what happens next year when we don’t get it? I’m not being ungrateful but it doesn’t seem like we’re making much progress.

“No-one is talking about pay cuts they talk about deferrals but that’s no good for us in League One and League Two. Deferrals does nothing for us. It just moves the problem further down the road.

“The PAYE deferral of £120,000-a-month for a club like us just means, if this goes on for six months, then we’ll owe £750,000. How are we going to pay that?

“A lot of people in football are putting their heads in the sand. This isn’t going to just blow over. I’m on a Whats App group with League One and League Two and I watch what they all say and there’s a lot of clubs with a lot of problems. There’s some desperate people out there.

“Of the £125m, 80 per cent of that goes to the Championship, 12 per cent to League One and eight per cent to League Two. For League One and League Two you get £20m and between 40 odd clubs that’s only £500,000 each and that won’t go very far at all.”