Joe GallopThe English Football League (EFL) has secured a £117.5m funding package from MetLife Investment Management to help clubs in the second-tier Championship cope with the impacts of Covid-19.
The funding package is aimed to support Championship clubs in meeting PAYE liabilities. The EFL said the clubs have stored up a “significant amount” of debt, including HMRC, due to a lack of usual income as a result of the pandemic.
EFL said that as a result of playing matches without fans for the second half of the 2019/20 season and virtually all of the 2020/21 season, the loss of income in gate receipts and other revenue streams across the league’s 72 clubs is approximately £150m.
The MetLife loan was the same amount that the Championship clubs requested and it follows the failure to secure a loan from Government.
It also follows the announcement in December that the Premier League would provide up to £50m as part of the EFL’s rescue package.
As per the terms of the rescue package, the Premier League will now provide up to £15m to support the EFL in securing the MetLife loan.
EFL said the agreement of the loan followed a “competitive bidding process”, in which the football league received “solicited and unsolicited” financial proposals from a variety of UK banks and other private financing providers.
EFL Chair Rick Parry said, “This past month has marked an unwelcome anniversary for football with supporters now being unable to attend matches for a 12-month period, resulting in multiple negative consequences.
“This is therefore a much welcome, timely package of support for Championship Clubs, whose operations have continued to incur significant costs without generating anywhere near normal levels of revenue.
“The support will be pivotal to clubs being able to re-evaluate their financial position and help them start to plot their way out of the pandemic and plan with greater certainty for 2021/22 when we are hoping for the return of fans in large numbers.”