{"id":279550,"date":"2025-10-05T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279550\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:07:11","slug":"small-clubs-cant-take-too-much-from-the-top-tom-wagner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279550\/","title":{"rendered":"Small clubs can’t take too much from the top – Tom Wagner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City<\/a> co-owner Tom Wagner has said England’s smaller clubs “can’t take too much” from the top ones and that the bigger clubs “should be protected at all costs.”<\/p>\n

Wagner took charge of Birmingham in 2023, along with minority owner NFL legend Tom Brady<\/a>, with the side being promoted from League One to the Championship last season.<\/p>\n

Debate continues to rage about the financial flows between the Premier League<\/a> and the rest of the English football pyramid, with an independent regulator set to conduct a ‘State of the Game’ review which will examine this issue and talks between the top flight and the EFL stuck at an impasse.<\/p>\n

The issue of Premier League clubs financially supporting those lower down the pyramid is a long-standing one, but Wagner believes officials should be cautious with their approach.<\/p>\n

Tom Wagner took charge at Birmingham in 2023.\u00a0Nigel French\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“I think that the top clubs in English football have to be protected at all costs,” Wagner said at Leaders Week London at Allianz Stadium on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

– From Liverpool to Wrexham, are U.S. owners taking over English football?<\/a>
– Football Governance act becomes law in landmark moment<\/a>
– Every big transfer from this summer: Should our expectations change?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“We can’t take too much from the top clubs to support the pyramid, because if you end up in a situation where there are not dominant teams at the top of the Prem — and by dominant, I mean dominant internationally, with the very best players and the very best product — the interest will wane, particularly in the U.S. market, which is going to drive the increase in value and the increase in capital flows into English football.<\/p>\n

“I love the pyramid. We’ve experienced a lot of it. It’s all great. It makes for a super-interesting story. But those top clubs, the ones that are highly successful and really have the significant brand value, we’ve got to protect them, to ensure that they draw the interest.<\/p>\n

“There are six — which I would argue is now eight — really fantastic organisations. And I think there’s space for 10. And we’d hope that we can position ourselves to be there.<\/p>\n

“As we explore new ways to improve the competitiveness of teams down the pyramid, let’s make sure that we do it in a way that grows the pie, as opposed to redistributes the pie.”<\/p>\n

Information from PA contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City co-owner Tom Wagner has said England’s smaller clubs “can’t take too much” from the top ones…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":279551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-279550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115321716421279591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}