Prem, EFL and FA to propose own regulator and financial reforms

The Premier League, Football Association and EFL are drawing up new plans to decide how money will flow from the top flight to the lower leagues, and the arrangements could be ready as early as next season.

Any credible proposals will have to deal with the parachute payments made to clubs relegated from the top flight, which can total as much as £90M over three years, and distort competition in the Championship and leagues below.

And they will have to deliver a significant increase in the money flowing down the pyramid in order to satisfy EFL clubs.

But changes to the current system are likely to cause concern among teams that are battling against the drop from the Premier League this season and will rely on parachute payments to help them adjust to life in the second tier.

The new joint approach is a surprise, since the three organisations were previously divided over these issues. Despite that, and under pressure from Government, the football authorities have declared their intentions to tackle the thorny problems of financial distribution and regulation in a combined letter to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

The football bodies were told to suggest a mechanism to distribute funds more fairly in the Fan-Led Review of Football, drawn up by former sports minister Tracey Crouch and published in November.

Conservative MP Crouch had asked football to formulate an approach by the end of last year, or if it could not, to at least agree on an independent expert to arbitrate.

In fact, neither of those outcomes were achieved and earlier this month Ms Dorries, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture Media and Sport, wrote to the three organisations demanding to know what progress they had made, Sportsmail can reveal. They