The Premiership, spreading the good will, and the dosh
The League One and Two clubs had initially blocked the change at a meeting a couple of weeks ago but were warned by the Premier League it wouldn't be making a new one after many clubs had expressed concern about the changes due to fears of a breakaway by Championship clubs.
The new payments start at £16million a year over two years raising to £48million over four years, and start from next season as part of a package of solidarity payments.
A Foootball League spokesman said: "Following a frank but constructive meeting at Walsall's Banks's Stadium, Football League clubs have voted to accept the Premier League's revised solidarity and parachute payments proposals. Whilst many clubs expressed concerns about the proposals, their acceptance was considered the only viable way forward. The Football League will now work in good faith, with the Premier League, to ensure that the resulting contract and regulatory changes are good for both competitions and football as a whole."
The payments amount to £16million for each of the first two seasons and £8million for each of the next two.
Clubs in the Championship who do not get parachute payments will receive £2.3million a season, League One sides £325,000 and League Two sides £250,000.
Under the current package Championship sides received between £1.4million and £750,000.
So relegation has cost Ron £75,000 straight away, but it's good news they agreed.
It's appreciated that this will make life even more difficult for clubs such as Southend to get to and then survive in the second tier but a form of Premiership 2 by stealth may well have happened anyway, and it would be wrong that some clubs may get into even more cash difficulties due to lower league Chairman being intransigent in their opposition.
A full backround to this story was supplied by www.ciderspace.co.uk here:
Football League Blog : Fancy An Extra £217,000 Per Season? No Thanks!