By David Woods

11th Jun, 2020 | 7:00pm

MOT View: BBC man relays 'staggering' EFL update that proves how critical promotion is for Leeds

Leeds United are on the brink of a return to the Premier League after 16 years in the wilderness. 

Just nine games stand between Marcelo Bielsa’s men and promotion and they have a seven-point buffer over third-placed Fulham.

Bookies have made them as short as 1/66 to win promotion – they’re saying if the rest of the season was run 67 times, Leeds would go up 66 times.

Which is good, because there’s a hell of a lot riding on it.

We already know that Marcelo Bielsa could leave if he doesn’t get Leeds promoted. And players such as Kalvin Phillips might move to top-flight clubs.

It’s unlikely that Leeds would take up the option on Jack Harrison, we certainly wouldn’t sign Jean-Kevin Augustin and Ben White would be waving goodbye after his loan.

However, figures from the Championship show just how critical promotion is, this season of all seasons.

BBC journalist Dan Roan relayed a ‘staggering’ update on the EFL.

He said, “Championship clubs lost a combined £300m in 2018/19, with a staggering ratio of players’ wages to turnover of 107%.”

This was despite clubs in the EFL delivering record revenues of a combined £1bn.

The update came from Deloitte and they recommended a salary cap of 70% of revenue going forward to ensure the stability of the EFL.

Andrea Radrizzani has already said that Leeds’ wages are unsustainable in the Championship.

Talking in the Times back in October, Radrizzani said, “Bielsa and his staff cost £6 million [a year], we bought many other players and I think we have a squad to be promoted. It’s financially not sustainable to keep this level of salary.”

And this is from a club that’s being run as responsibly as possible but with ambitions of promotion.

Sheffield Wednesday and Derby are being investigated after selling their stadiums to sister companies to circumnavigate financial fair play.

It doesn’t take a financial expert to work out that £300m of losses and wages that are higher than turnover are ultimately going to be disastrous.

Profit & sustainability levels that give clubs an amount they can lose need to be changed and parachute payments that make it doubly hard for Championship clubs to keep up with recently relegated teams should be looked at and likely abolished.

But that’s the long term. In the short term, it’s absolutely essential that Leeds get out of the Championship, unlock the riches of the Premier League and stay there.

We think Bielsa and Radrizzani are the right men to make this happen.

In other Leeds United news, ‘Very powerful’ – Simon Jordan makes big claim about Leeds and EFL relationship