Gold warns clubs to mind the gap

Gold warns clubs to mind the gap

Watch more of the interview...Football FocusSat 17 Mar, from 1210 GMTBirmingham City chairman David Gold warns the widening gap between Premiership clubs and the rest could render relegation meaningless.
A new television deal will give Premiership clubs at least £30m a year.
In Saturday's Football Focus, Gold says: "The gap between relegated clubs and the Championship is the big issue.
"You could have a situation where the three clubs relegated from the Premiership will be the three promoted the next season."
Gold's fears are echoed by Oldham chief executive Alan Hardy, who says clubs outside the Premiership are finding it increasingly difficult to compete.
Hardy warns: "It's getting perilously close to putting some clubs out of business.
Frankly, we don't want to be on television
Birmingham chairman David Gold
"The Premier League has got to be prepared to make sure that football as we know it, with 92 professional clubs, continues to thrive.
"But at the moment, football is struggling in the lower divisions."
Premiership spokesman Dan Johnson claims that more money will be distributed to clubs lower down through the Premier League's development fund.
He says: "There will be more money than ever before at every single level of the game.
"But this is more of a structural problem than a financial one. Even if you shrunk that gap significantly there will still be a gap and issues for clubs who are promoted and relegated. More often with the clubs who are relegated."
"This is something that's been levelled at the Premiership for the past nine years because of the size of the deals that we have done, that there would be yo-yo clubs."
Gold also claims the current live television deal with Football League clubs is not helping and said: "Frankly, we don't want to be on television.
"One of our games was screened live on television recently and we received £60,000. We were 10,000 fans down on the day and we lost money. That can't be right."
Watch more of the interivew on Saturday's Football Focus - 1210 GMT on BBC ONE.