Football regulator to address EFL clubs as quest for deal goes on

The head of English football's watchdog will address the 72 clubs below the top flight on Thursday as the quest for a financial redistribution deal with the Premier League continues.

Sky News understands that David Kogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR), will address a gathering of executives from the Championship, League One and League Two just days after the publication of a damning report laying bare the financial peril in the professional game.

Insiders said a £150m-a-year deal proposed by the Premier League in August remained unacceptable to the EFL board, which is pushing for annual payments of as much as £207m over a five-year period.

A compromise figure of £180m-a-year has yet to be put to top flight clubs to be voted on, with tensions having started to emerge between executives in the game's second and third tiers over the distribution of future payments.

If a deal cannot be reached between the Premier League and EFL, one or both would need to request that the watchdog steps in to use its backstop powers to impose a deal.

The IFR has privately warned the lower leagues that such a settlement could take as long as a couple of years to formulate.

Mr Kogan last week presided over the IFR's inaugural State of the Game report, which - as Sky News had revealed - demonstrated that 94% of professional clubs are loss-making.

He delivered an excoriating indictment of the way clubs have been run, and called for urgent change.

Clubs have also been informed that they will be notified this week of the cost and structure of funding the IFR, with the bulk of the bill poised to land on the desks of Premier League sides.

That announcement is expected on Friday.

The EFL and IFR declined to comment.

(c) Sky News 2026: Football regulator to address EFL clubs as quest for deal goes on