Sheffield Wednesday: "There has to be real pressure for change" - Former Championship CEO slams EFL

Former West Brom chief executive Mark Jenkins, who ended an 18-year working relationship with the Baggies only last month, criticised the league’s handling of Championship media deals, claiming 18 of last season’s 24 clubs were not satisfied with what he said was ‘the easy option’.

Sheffield Wednesday will start their 2020/21 Championship campaign on minus-12 points after being found guilty of financial misconduct around the sale of their Hillsborough stadium, a move designed to circumvent the EFL’s Profitability & Sustainability rulings.

Jenkins said the EFL’s mishandling of media deals makes it “very difficult for football clubs to survive without owners putting money in” and argued that with other football club directors on the authority’s board there is a clear conflict of interest when dealing with disciplinary issues at certain clubs.

The EFL were widely criticised for the way they went about their business in their case against Wednesday and the authority have appealed an independent disciplinary commission ruling that found Derby County not guilty of the amortisation of intangible assets.

“Football needs to sort itself out,” Jenkins told BBC Sport. "If anything has happened through Covid, it is that there has to be a change in the structure of the EFL. There has to be real pressure on the EFL at the moment to change.”

The current TV media rights are a five-year £595m Sky Sports deal, which was accepted in late 2018 after extensive consultation and that it cemented a partnership which meant, this summer, there was no Premier League-style rebate despite the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jenkins said 18 second-tier clubs voiced their dissatisfaction of the deal, which was negotiated by the EFL on behalf of clubs. He described the Championship as a ‘great product, poorly marketed’.

“The EFL said it had a duty to all clubs to get them something and nothing else was on the table,” he said. “The Championship clubs were more bullish in saying: 'We are willing to pay poker on this.' In my opinion, the EFL board took the easy option.

“No deal was better than this one. We had 23 games moved for TV. That affects our income.

“The system currently is not working,” he said. “Independent directors, which would include a CEO for the Championship, would be a way forward.

“At one meeting about the the TV contract, one person said: 'There is an argument if it is not broken, don't fix it.' I couldn't believe it. Of course it was broken.

“I had my head in my hands. I looked at my finance director, who was sitting with me, and I said: 'We have got to get out of this league.' It is not just the finance side. It is ridiculous.”

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