Deloitte have crunched the numbers on what the Championship Play-Off Final and victory would mean for both Aston Villa and Fulham this season.
With a Wembley route often regarded as the more magical way of achieving promotion into the Premier League, it is certainly the more financially beneficial with the national stadium riches at stake for both clubs and especially the winner.
Saturday, May 26 sees Steve Bruce’s side fight for the biggest financial prize in world football when you factor in all the relevant benefits, and for the traditionalists amongst us, the following will make for frightening reading.
If promoted Villa will benefit from a rough £160million across the next three seasons owing to the current terms of the television deal in place, and that figure could rise to in excess of £280million if we consolidate our position on our return. To put that in perspective, West Bromwich Albion earned £94,666,492 for finishing in last place this year.
Referencing the Champions League Final as the bigger game, Partner and Head of Sports, Dan Jones told their website – Click Here.
“Whilst in football terms the UEFA Champions League Final is the bigger game, the financial rewards on offer in Kiev are dwarfed by those at stake in North London. The difference between winning and losing for Liverpool this weekend, is a mere £4m in distributions from UEFA (with any inbound sponsor bonuses likely to be at least in part offset by outgoing player and management bonuses) and they are already assured of appearing in next year’s competition.”
The self-styled Chumps League is worth a pittance in comparison and Villa actually receive slightly less of a financial prize as we forego our third parachute payment for success – but you only need to look at the figures listed to know how important it is for our finances.
Okay, this report contains some presumptions – it assumes the value of the next television deal delivers the same value as the current agreement, but with Financial Fair Play in the second tier about to bite, and Villa needing to move to a loan approach to strengthening the squad, it doesn’t take a financial whiz to know what this kind of boost would give our accounts and the added freedom it would allow in the first team to strengthen.
Many have happily said they enjoyed the Championship battle more than the Premier League, but it’s not about the fans anymore is it – it’s about the money on offer and for Villa to grow, we need to get our share of that pie.
A failure to gain promotion this year and we know we need to significantly tighten our belts and neither the club nor Steve Bruce, have overly hidden that.
You can very easily say there are 280million reasons to get the job done this weekend and ensure we don’t then become a yo-yo club for a few seasons.
