Alex Miller: The clown car that is Championship football finance will go through the gears once more

For the football industry, there are several soul-searching causes for debate.

Back-stabbing multi-million-pound deals, gluttonous ticket prices, stewards and hotdog vendors set aside on zero-hour contracts; football at the higher levels has long since been held up as one of the industries most out-of-touch with the very people that keep its wheels turning.

In 2008 fears over the future of football’s financial fabric proved to be misplaced. There were struggles here and there, but it was found to be largely recession-proof as television subscriptions kept rolling in and season ticket tallies remained sky-high.

Broadcast rights kept soaring, the numbers elsewhere rising. Average footballers on £20k or £30k a week? It’s not their fault. If a rival newspaper was shovelling out that sort of money at bang-average sportswriters there’s a good chance this column would end mid-sentence as my CV was rolled in glitter.

More, more, more; spend, spend, spend. Championship clubs desperate to tip-toe the golden pavements of the Premier League have pushed finances to the very boundaries of their means and the pulling of football’s rug by the coronavirus has laid that overstretch bare.

A conversation with a pair of hugely experienced football writers this week turned to whether football would recalibrate that desperate financial clamour for success after the dust of crisis settles.

We, those who watch on, are equally to blame, it was suggested. If Sheffield Wednesday had £30m in reserves sat in the bank for a rainy day, supporters and media would be clamouring for a spending spree. Would that attitude change after all this? Would owners rise above it and tighten their belts?

It’s a nice thought, but as unprecedented as this world crisis is, the football league has seen its share of financial disaster before. When the ITV Digital cheque bounced so spectacularly in 2002 we were having similar conversations.

The clown car of football finance might take some re-starting, but whenever the world allows, it will surely go through the gears once more. All aboard.