Mark Kleinman is Sky News' City editor, writing in his City AM column.

New Season, New Deal?

As England football supporters recover from yet another disappointing late-stage exit on the international stage, attention is shifting back to the domestic game. However, the most consequential early-season battles may unfold not on the pitch but in the boardroom.

After more than three years of intermittent negotiations, the Premier League has formally presented the English Football League with a deal to redistribute a portion of elite clubs' income. As Kleinman revealed on Sky News last month, an agreement would mark one of the most significant developments for the sport since the Premier League's founding in 1992, when the top clubs broke away from the Football League to negotiate their own broadcast contracts — a structural split that created the revenue gap the current negotiations are intended to address.

Yet a final resolution remains uncertain. The EFL's immediate response was to reject the terms as inadequate and call for additional funding. The proposed arrangement would deliver approximately £1.5bn in extra payments over a ten-year period, financed in part by raising the domestic transfer levy from four per cent to six per cent. A stipulation that recipients must allocate a minimum of 20 per cent to infrastructure is a prudent measure, reflecting legitimate concerns that the funds could otherwise flow directly into the accounts of players and agents.

A £20m lifeboat fund intended to support any EFL club that enters administration, by contrast, appears largely symbolic. Dozens of EFL clubs have entered administration over the past two decades, with several — including Bury's expulsion from the league in 2019 — underscoring the fragility of lower-division finances. A fund of that magnitude is unlikely to prove sufficient if clubs continue to experience financial distress at their current pace.

The ten-year duration of the proposed New Deal appears deliberately designed to secure a favourable response from the Independent Football Regulator — though it could also establish a risky precedent for the Premier League if no agreement is reached and the regulator exercises its backstop powers. The IFR, recommended by the fan-led review of football governance chaired by former sports minister Tracey Crouch and subsequently enacted via the Football Governance Act, was established in direct response to the financial instability of clubs and the abortive European Super League project of 2021.

Early indications from football insiders suggest that EFL chair Rick Parry is likely to hold out for a larger settlement. Whether that approach proves wise remains to be seen, but depending on regulatory intervention carries its own risks. As the World Cup demonstrated, entrusting decisions to a supposedly impartial arbiter — whether a VAR official or the IFR — does not always yield a satisfactory outcome.

Betfred Shop Closures Serve as a Warning to Burnham

Fred Done, the ebullient Betfred co-founder and chairman, may not have followed through on his pre-Budget threat to shutter all 1,200 or so of his high street betting shops following industry tax increases. Nevertheless, the company's announcement that it is closing more than 10 per cent of its outlets carries significant weight.

Born in Salford, Done now ranks as Britain's biggest individual taxpayer, owing to the gambling empire he has constructed over a 60-year career. By most logic, he should represent precisely the type of entrepreneur celebrated by Andy Burnham.

Yet the new prime minister has been striking a hostile tone toward the gambling industry, which appears to be held in roughly the same low regard by the new administration as the water industry. The government has already moved to tighten gambling regulation, including the introduction of affordability checks and a statutory levy on operators to fund research and treatment, measures that have drawn sharp industry pushback.

For bookmakers like Done, the government's posture toward the sector is rapidly undermining the viability of their retail estates. Given the abundance of footfall data showing that customers who visit local betting shops subsequently spend money at neighbouring retailers, crafting policies that accelerate the closure of such outlets seems a curious approach from a prime minister who has pledged to reverse the decline of Britain's high streets.

Betfred's closure of 132 shops is likely only the beginning. Rising gambling levies and the escalating cost of retail employment in the wake of Rachel Reeves's changes to employers' national insurance contributions have created a punishing environment for high street bookmakers. While Done's threat to close all his shops may have been intended as hyperbole, without relief for the industry, the prospects for the high street revival plan look bleak.

West Ham Ownership Battle Pits Staveley Against Kretinsky

Given the quality of football West Ham supporters endured at the London Stadium last season, it may be just as well that the club's ownership appears to be engaged in a game of chess rather than football as the new campaign looms.

Daniel Kretinsky, the Hammers' third-largest shareholder with a 24.8 per cent stake, executed what appeared to be a strategic manoeuvre by divesting 2.2 per cent of the club to an ally, Jakub Havrlant. Through this sale, Kretinsky believes he has positioned himself to acquire the Gold family's entire 25.1 per cent holding without crossing the 50 per cent ownership threshold — a threshold that would oblige him to make an offer for the remaining shares at a substantially higher valuation.

That higher valuation, according to informed sources, would fall in the vicinity of £1bn — considerably more than the approximately £600m at which the Gold stake is set to change hands, a figure that would itself represent a record for a Championship-level club. Kretinsky, a Czech billionaire who also owns Sparta Prague and holds significant stakes in Royal Mail parent IDS and the J Sainsbury supermarket group, would consolidate control of a club whose revenue base — built on a 62,500-seat stadium and the largest matchday income outside the Premier League's traditional elite — remains substantial even after relegation.

Should Kretinsky's strategy succeed, it could derail Amanda Staveley's planned return to English football, having previously agreed a deal to acquire the Gold family's interest in West Ham. Staveley, who fronted the Saudi-led PIF takeover of Newcastle United in 2021 before stepping away from the club's board in 2024, has been seeking a new foothold in English football's upper tier.

West Ham have managed to retain much of the squad relegated from the Premier League in May, but with the new campaign about to commence, off-field developments once again threaten to distract supporters who are hoping the club's stay in the Championship will be a short one.