The play-off final’s prize fund will have a much greater impact for Nottingham Forest than their opponents Huddersfield, it has been suggested.
The Reds compete in the Wembley showpiece on Sunday as they look to get back into the top flight for the first time in more than 20 years. And the Premier League’s global audience means there is a big financial windfall that comes with earning promotion.
But with Huddersfield still receiving parachute payments from when they were relegated to the Championship in 2019, football finance expert Kieran Maguire reckons the potential £170m prize pot will be much more important for Forest. He told the Mirror: “Huddersfield are in receipt of parachute payments still, whilst I would say Forest are much closer to the limit in terms of Financial Fair Play (FFP) so they've got less wiggle room. Forest have had to rely on player sales, debt write-offs.
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“If we take a look at the underlying accounts over the last ten years they have lost £480,000 per week. I think that's indicative of just how tough it is in the Championship for some clubs.”
The £170m figure mostly comes via a big increase in TV payments, with the Premier League the most-watched league worldwide. But that also helps with a rise in commercial revenue too, as Maguire sets out.
He said: “Teams in the Championship would normally get around £7.5-8m from TV. So you're going up from £8m to £100m in the Premier League, which is a jump of £92m.
“On top of that there is two years' worth of parachute payments which is a minimum of £75m. So you put those together and that's £167m.
“Then if you talk to commercial directors, they say they can charge 10 times as much for a 30-second advert on the pitch side perimeters in the Premier League than in the Championship because it's going out to a global audience. For example Leeds got an extra £6m in commercial income once in the Premier League.
“And you will probably add in more from matchday income, although not a lot as remember there are fewer games (19 home games rather than the 23 in the Championship). So if you put it all together, you've got roughly £170m for the winners.”
