A whole new ball game

Grilled by MPs, chairman Rick Parry pulled no punches about the state of the English Football League, calling for a “complete reset” of its business model.

The football industry has been hard-hit by the coronavirus crisis, particularly those clubs sitting outside the Premier League. And there is growing concern about their future.

Parry told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee in May: “Perhaps one benefit of going through this pain is we will be shocked into coming up with a more sustainable model for the future.”

The game was not in good shape before the pandemic. At the start of the 2019/20 season, Bury FC became the first league club to go out of business since Maidstone United’s liquidation in 1992.