Financial Distribution through the football pyramid

Fair distributions are vital to the long term health of football.
The Premier League should guarantee its support to the pyramid and make additional, proportionate contributions to further support football.

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* 1. The FA should scrap its current formula for distributing revenue it generates. The FA should have more flexibility to redistribute revenues as it sees fit, based on its assessment of where funding is most needed in the game.

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* 2. Football should seek to resolve distribution issues itself. If no agreement can be reached by the end of 2021/2022 season, the Premier League and EFL should commission research to find a solution, with backstop powers for IREF if a solution is still not found.

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* 3. The Leagues, FA, and PFA should work together to include a new compulsory clause in the standard player contracts that provides for an automatic adjustment to player salaries at a standard rate upwards on promotion and downwards on relegation.

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* 4. A solidarity transfer levy should be introduced for Premier League clubs, to support the football pyramid and overseen by IREF. Its level and whether loans should be included should be determined through consultation.

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* 5. IREF should produce or procure on a regular basis an assessment of financial flows, distributions and costs in football to aid policy debate on football finance.

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* 6. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport works closely with the Home Office, the UK Football Policing Unit and other stakeholders to design, agree, manage, and review a series of small scale, limited, pilots of the sale of alcohol in sight of the pitch, during matches between clubs in the National League and League Two.

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* 7. The Home Office should review the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985 to establish whether its measures are still fit for purpose in 2022 and beyond, and that it reflects the football culture of the present day — and to provide robust evidence in its conclusion of such a review.

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* 8. The EFL should review its rules on artificial pitches, and at the very least relax its current rules on artificial pitches to offer flexibility to newly promoted clubs, giving them a 3 year grace period to convert to grass pitches.

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* 9. Please leave any additional comments you may have on the distribution of finances in the football pyramid, or on the wider recommendations outlined in this survey.

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