EFL Counter-Bid Lands on the Table: £207m a Year From the Premier League, or No Deal

The EFL has demanded £207m a year from the Premier League — £1.035bn over five seasons — to end the long-running impasse over English football's financial model, with Sky News revealing that top-flight clubs were told of the counter-bid at their shareholders' meeting in London on Thursday. The figure lands as a direct answer to the Premier League's offer of more than £1.5bn across ten years, tabled during the summer, and widens the gap between the two leagues at the most sensitive moment the negotiation has yet reached.

The counter-bid on the table

Sky News has learnt that Premier League clubs were told on Thursday that their lower-league counterparts are seeking £207m each year over five seasons. Talks between directors of the two leagues reportedly coalesced around a potential ten-year payment worth an average of £180m a year, but the EFL is holding out for the higher annual sum over a shorter commitment. David Kogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator, was in attendance at the discussions, according to the same reporting. The Premier League, EFL and IFR all declined to comment.

What the Premier League is offering in return

The summer proposal, formally offered to the EFL last month and presented to its clubs last week, would see solidarity payments rise by £163m a year by 2028-29 — more than double the current estimate of £134m — with £81m extra pledged in the current season, according to the Leicester Mercury's account of the paperwork, carried by OneFootball and The Independent. The package also features a new 'lifeboat fund' for lower-league clubs in financial distress, a reduction in parachute payments to relegated clubs, and a pot of money ring-fenced for infrastructure investment across the EFL's 72 members.

The strings are familiar: the additional funding is linked to new cost controls at EFL level and a move to make Carabao Cup semi-finals single-legged to ease fixture congestion — conditions the EFL has so far resisted while pressing for a larger share.

Since a fair and generous proposal was formally offered to the EFL last month, discussions have continued between the leagues' executives, and it was presented to EFL clubs last week. The Premier League remains committed to concluding a football-led solution as soon as possible so additional money can flow to EFL clubs this season.— Premier League statement, after Thursday's shareholders' meeting, as reported by Sky News, 25 September 2026

The regulator's shadow

The timing is no accident. Any revised offer from the Premier League would need a vote of its clubs, and time is running out before the IFR publishes its inaugural State of the Game report in mid-October — the assessment of English football's financial health that could reshape the negotiating leverage on both sides. The Football Governance Act gives the watchdog far-reaching powers, including the backstop to force a settlement on the leagues if they cannot agree one themselves, and the Premier League has already warned EFL clubs that triggering it could mean up to two years' wait for money.

What happens next

The choice facing the EFL is now sharpened by its own number: accept a longer deal at roughly £180m a year and bank the uplift this season, or hold for £207m over five seasons and risk the negotiation being overtaken by the regulator's findings. For the Premier League, a voluntary settlement keeps the design of English football's finances — and its conditions — in the boardroom rather than the regulator's office. The gap between £180m and £207m has rarely been more expensive.

Reporting by Ines Kovač, football business and governance correspondent, based on Sky News' exclusive of 25 September 2026 and reporting by The Independent and the Leicester Mercury via OneFootball. All three parties to the negotiation — the Premier League, the EFL and the IFR — declined to comment when approached.