Source: FOOTYMAD
Championship Break Even Test
The chairmen and chief executives of all the Championship clubs will be meeting next Thursday to discuss a proposal to introduce a break even test for clubs in the Championship. It's not a meeting that these people can choose to attend but is a mandatory meeting called by the Senior Management Team of the Football League because of the unacceptably high debt levels in the Championship.Clubs are being put under pressure to work towards a break even position and the meeting will consider a previously published paper amidst feats that debt levels will treble over the next five years, particularly with television revenues down for Championship clubs by over £700,000 from the 2011/13 season.The paper includes proposals for the implementation of such a system and possible sanctions for those Championship clubs that fail the test in the future. Those sanctions will include player registration embargoes and a competition tax by which clubs that fail pay into a pool that those clubs who succeed will benefit from and/or a fine based system based on the amount by which clubs fail the test.This has already caused problems at one Championship club, namely Barnsley, who have decided in principle to support the Football League subject to the final details of the proposal. They discussed it with manager Mark Robins, outlining how they intend to approach it. This will included reducing the use of high cost loan players and instead favouring of recruiting players with development value.Robins admitted that he needed time to consider the implications before agreeing to continue under those conditions. and because of this the Barnsley board felt it necessary to invoke the clause in his contract fixing the amount of compensation due should he choose to leave, which they believe is the most likely outcome.Should this proposal be accepted it will see considerable changes at some clubs in the Championship and might be part of the story behind the news yesterday from Turf Moor of the departure of both Stuart Gray and Ash Hoskin.
