{"id":466231,"date":"2025-10-01T16:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/466231\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:48:14","slug":"birmingham-chief-wagner-breaks-ranks-over-premier-league-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/466231\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham chief Wagner breaks ranks over Premier League cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tWednesday 01 October 2025 4:54 pm\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tShare<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tX\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Twitter\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on LinkedIn\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tWhatsApp\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on WhatsApp\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tEmail\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Email\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img width=\"742\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2229115904-e1759333918783.jpg\" class=\"media \" alt=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t\tBirmingham City owner Tom Wagner says the Premier League\u2019s top clubs should be protected at all costs\t<\/p>\n<p>Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner has broken ranks with his EFL rivals over their attempts to extract more money from the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>The thorny issue is among the top priorities for the incoming Independent Football Regulator after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/premier-league-and-efl-kick-start-talks-over-billion-pound-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">years of talks between the Premier League and the EFL<\/a> ended in deadlock.<\/p>\n<p>Top flight teams currently share around 14 per cent of the Premier League\u2019s central revenues with the divisions below them but the EFL has called for this to increase to 25 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that the top clubs of English football have to be protected at all costs,\u201d Wagner said at The Summit, part of Leaders Week London 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t take too much from the top clubs because if you end up in a situation where there are not dominant teams at the top\u00a0 \u2013 and by dominant, I mean dominant internationally; the very best players and the very best product \u2013 the interest will wane. And particularly in the US market, which is going to drive the increase In value or capital flows into English football.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love the pyramid. We\u2019ve experienced a lot of it. It\u2019s all great. It makes for a super interesting story. But those top clubs, the ones that are highly successful and really have significant brand value, we\u2019ve got to protect them to ensure that they draw the interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Birmingham can be in Prem top 10 \u2013 Wagner<\/p>\n<p>Wagner\u2019s comments are likely to cause consternation among the EFL and many of its clubs, the majority of whom \u2013 even in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/people-and-organizations\/the-championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Championship<\/a> \u2013 cannot compete with Birmingham City\u2019s revenue and spending power.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/efl-in-advanced-talks-with-sheffield-wednesday-owner-chansiri-over-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EFL in advanced talks with Sheffield Wednesday owner Chansiri over sale<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He insisted, however, that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/people-and-organizations\/english-football-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the EFL<\/a> should focus on helping its clubs \u201cin a way that grows the pie, as opposed to redistributes the pie\u201d, citing greater marketing efforts as an example.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019d love to have to have more revenue, and we\u2019d love to see the pyramid strengthened, but what we don\u2019t want to see is for whatever percentage we land on result in a less competitive top of the pyramid,\u201d Wagner added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom an international perspective, it\u2019s not for me to say what the right percentage is, but I think what we want is for the top of the pyramid to still have that enormous brand value, be highly competitive internationally, and I think that that will draw more attention to English football generally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur hope and sincere belief is that it will lead to growth in the overall amount of revenues that filter through the pyramid in its entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wagner said the Premier League\u2019s strength is its clutch of elite teams, which he believes could grow from the current Big Six to 10 dominant sides \u2013 including Birmingham City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have two or three dominant teams, like many other leagues do. It has many teams that are highly competitive,\u201d the American said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd there\u2019s six, which I would argue is now eight, really fantastic organisations. I think there\u2019s space for 10, and we\u2019d hope we can position ourselves to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/exclusive-reading-in-talks-over-welcome-to-wrexham-style-docuseries\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Exclusive: Reading in talks over Welcome to Wrexham style docuseries<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tSimilarly tagged content: <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tSections\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tCategories\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPeople &amp; Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tRelated Topics\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday 01 October 2025 4:54 pm Share Facebook Share on Facebook X Share on Twitter LinkedIn Share on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,12905,748,51,23712,393,94,4308,4884,155574,12,101,93,131586,8161,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-466231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-efl","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-football-finance","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-knighthead-capital","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-premier-league","20":"tag-sport","21":"tag-sport-business","22":"tag-tom-wagner","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115299936803128229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}