'Sugar-coated cyanide pill' - Project Big Picture plans continue to divide football amid fresh stark warning over EFL clubs

Project Big Picture proposes an immediate £250million rescue package for EFL clubs starved of matchday income by the coronavirus pandemic and the promise of a 25 per cent cut of future Premier League media revenues.

Rotherham chairman Tony Stewart has predicted “dire disaster” as early as this month with at least six EFL clubs going bust if financial help is not forthcoming.

He told Sky Sports News: “For a long time now the wealth of money that comes into football is not distributed in the way it should be. The good news is it’s been highlighted.

“I think Rick Parry has more or less said things have got to happen. There were talks before the Covid disaster and now it’s coming to a head.

“We welcome a change, an opportunity to be able compete and to run it more like a business than a charity where we have donors coming in from all over the world and we are losing sovereignty – more and more English and British chairmen are going by the wayside because they can’t afford to put on a community sport for their town, their city.

“So I welcome the change. If things don’t happen soon I know for a fact more than half a dozen EFL clubs will go by the wayside, and I’m not exaggerating.

“If nothing does happen – and I’m talking in the month of October – dire disaster will happen to clubs all around the UK.”

But the plans have not been universally welcomed and the Football Supporters’ Association has described Project Big Picture as a “sugar-coated cyanide pill”.

The FSA insists there are no guarantees that the Premier League will hand over £250million to EFL clubs as it spelled out why it opposed the new proposals.

“While Project Big Picture dangles an alleged £250m ‘rescue fund’ in front of clubs to cover lost revenues during the 2019-20 season they might actually be a sugar-coated cyanide pill,” the FSA said in a statement on its website.

“Apparently ‘money will be advanced to the EFL from increased future revenues’.

"Is there a guarantee that the money will even materialise? The entire package is based on projected revenues which are, in turn, based on the current media deal. Where is the guarantee that will happen?”

The issue has divided football since details first emerged at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Tranmere chairman Mark Palios has urged the Government to intervene and block Project Big Picture’s plans.

Revolutionary proposals unveiled by EFL chairman Rick Parry, with the support of Liverpool and Manchester United, have proved deeply divisive.

Palios told the PA news agency: “The inability of the game to fix itself has never been more evident than in its inability to find a collective response to Covid.

“The vacuum of leadership results in football’s complex stakeholder map disintegrating into naked self interest at the expense of football.”

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