‘Carnage’: Gary Neville reacts as Championship club owner spells out potential trouble for Leeds
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has said that the EFL could be facing “carnage” if fans aren’t allowed back in stadiums next season.
He was reacting after Huddersfield Town owner Phil Hodgkinson delivered an apocalypse-style warning over the weekend, saying that up to 60 clubs could go bankrupt in the EFL if there are no fans next season.
With just 71 clubs in the EFL, that’s a horrific assessment of what could happen next season from the Championship down.
Talking on The Football Show (Sky Sports, Monday, 9am), Neville said, “From Day One I’ve said it will be July, September, October when the real pressure comes.
“Richard Masters [CEO of the Premier League] did an interview slipped in over the weekend, when he said he wouldn’t be putting in place a short-term financial package for the EFL because he was concentrating on Premier League clubs.
“That’s what I’m seeing all over football, everyone’s looking down at their own feet and not seeing the carnage that’s coming in the months to come.
“There will be clubs considering going into admin over the next three or four months just to basically save themselves. There is a looming nightmare economically for EFL clubs.”
Leeds are on the brink of promotion to the Premier League and unlocking the riches that go along with that.
However, it’s not certain yet, with Masters saying in the same interview that the issue of taking relegation off the table in the top-flight is still potentially on the cards and would be discussed in the coming weeks.
If Leeds United don’t get promoted then they could find themselves in trouble.
Radrizzani has mounted a sensible assault on promotion. He’s kept the club within profit and sustainability levels, while others have flouted the rules, but he’s also said the current wage bill is unsustainable in the Championship. [The Times]
The wage bill at Elland Road is around £50m and if Leeds don’t get promoted then they could be left looking at getting rid of players in a depressed transfer market.
There’s absolutely nothing to say that the future of Leeds would be in doubt if they stayed in the Championship next season, but if fans aren’t allowed back into stadiums it could be disastrous financially.
Huddersfield have only just dropped down into the Championship and have parachute payments, which makes Hodgkinson’s comments all the more worrying.
That’s why promotion is so essential and why Leeds fans are so nervous about what’s going to happen in the next few weeks.
Neville has bemoaned people for looking at their feet but when the stakes are so high, you can excuse Leeds and its fans at the moment.
In other Leeds United news, ‘They’ll have heard enough’ – Alan Shearer reacts amid major EFL update on Leeds promotion bid