Rotherham United chief operating officer Paul Douglas on Millers finances, the Championship, chairman Tony Stewart and fans

It is now a year since the publication of MP Tracey Crouch’s Fan-led Review into English football which champions the appointment of an independent regulator and recommends that EFL clubs receive a much bigger slice of the top flight’s financial pie.

The Government accepts the proposals are the right way forward but nothing has yet been done and there is growing pressure for the shake-up to take place.

One of the main suggestions of the review is that the percentage of broadcast revenue the Premier League gives to EFL clubs goes up from 16 to 25.

Paul Douglas, chief operating officer of the Championship Millers, told The Advertiser: “I can’t put an actual number on it but I believe we would be looking at a very substantial figure.”

The extra money could run into several million pounds.

Douglas says he is “very frustrated” that the wait for action is still going on.

“At Rotherham United, we think it is a good report,” he said. “Tracey Crouch spent lot of time looking into things. We have to accept that the game hasn’t done enough to avoid the need for independent regulation.

“This position the EFL have taken with a 75-25 split is not unreasonable. The amount of money within the Premier League is quite staggering. No-one is begrudging them that. It’s a great product and has been a fantastic success story for English football.”

Crouch’s review was commissioned as a response to so many clubs threatening their own existence through poor financial management and the leading top-flight clubs wanting to break away to form a European Super League.

Teams in the EFL are believed to be reliant to the tune of £400m a year on their owners’ money.

“That is unsustainable,” Douglas said. “The EFL’s stance is that with fairer distribution and better regulation we can create a much healthier pyramid.”

THE COO supports the idea of outside regulation, knowing only too well how vital it is to make sure clubs survive,

He experienced the fear of the Millers folding before present chairman Tony Stewart saved them in 2008.

“Rotherham United were in great difficulty back in the early 2000s,” he said.

“I saw the effect that had on the town and the people of the town.

“It’s not acceptable to allow clubs to be in a position where they can be in dire straits and in real danger of going out of business because of bad governance without anybody properly anticipating that.”

Finance experts Deloitte’s annual review of football spending estimated total Premier League wages for 2021/22 at £4.7 billion, with Germany’s Bundesliga next at £2.6bn followed by Spain at £2.5bn.

The Championship figure was thought to be £412m.

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OVER-ACHIEVING Rotherham United are in their sixth season in the Championship in the last nine years but they should never really be there.

That’s the view of Paul Douglas, chief operating officer of arguably the second tier’s smallest club.

“If you measure sides by the size of their fan base or the turnover they have, we have no right to be competing in the Championship,” he said.

“However, at the same time, thankfully, sport isn’t like that. There are other factors.

“There’s spirit, the chemistry within an organisation, the systematic methods you might employ ... all of those things come together.

“And in our case, I’m proud to say, certainly since we’ve been at New York Stadium, we’ve well and truly punched above our weight.”

The Millers have come straight back down in their last three attempts to gain a foothold in the Championship.

They failed miserably in the 2016/17 campaign after the brief tenures of Alan Stubbs and Kenny Jackett had left them stranded at the foot of the table well before Christmas, before two brave survival attempts under Paul Warne in 2018/19 and 2020/21.

That relegation record makes for recruitment issues for Rotherham when they look to build a team capable of staying up.

Potential arrivals can be reluctant to move to S60 because they fear a return to League One — and the reduction in wages that goes with the drop — after 12 months.

“The money a club is given to go into the Championship, we use that to replenish our squad, improve our squad, for that next campaign,” Douglas said.

“We do that in the knowledge that if we fail then for the following season in League One that money is taken away.

“Players want to sign multi-year contracts and they’re very wary of what they’re going to be offered in League One.”

Meanwhile, attempting to defy the odds is something Rotherham will never shy away from.

“It is difficult for us to compete in the Championship but it’s a challenge we relish,” Douglas said.

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THE importance of owner Tony Stewart to Rotherham United has been outlined by the club’s chief operating officer, Paul Douglas.

Stewart stepped in to take the Millers out of administration in 2008 and in the 14 years since then there has Been the building of AESSEAL New York Stadium, four promotions, four trips to Wembley, six seasons in the Championship and a triumph in the Papa Johns Trophy.

“Without our chairman we wouldn’t have achieved the things we’ve achieved, let alone have the home we have,” Douglas said.

“It’s important to remember that Tony has been a great supporter of this club. He’s backed managers and he has backed the club in terms of the facilities and infrastructure we have got.”

Douglas hopes the Government, through an independent regulator, will adopt the recommendations of the Fan-led Review which could see Rotherham becoming less reliant on their benefactor.

“We have certainly spent more than our own ability to generate revenue would have allowed us to,” Douglas said.

“What we need to do is get to the stage where that is no longer required; or, if it is, it’s well within what any individual or group of individuals regard as acceptable to them.”

Rotherham have been a model of financial sustainability under Stewart, which is in stark contrast to the situation in which some of their rivals in the second tier have plunged themselves into.

“The big risk in the Championship is that we are seeing owners coming in and initially spending large amounts because of the promise of El Dorado and the Premier League,” Douglas said.

“Then in three years they are thinking ‘Do you know what? I didn’t think it was going to be this expensive’ and start pulling the plug.”

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THE multi-millionaire player and the hard-up fan ...

Paul Douglas wonders how much the two go hand in hand.

To Rotherham United’s chief operating officer, the contrast is symbolic of how much football at the top level has lost some of its connection with the people who follow it.

It’s part of the reason why he is so keen to see the proposals of the Fan-led Review brought into play and for the game to have an independent regulator and for its money to be spread more fairly through the divisions.

“I’ve seen teams come here (to AESSEAL New York Stadium) and their fans turn up,” he said.

“Some of them are the salt of the earth. They’ve got the scarves on with the pin badges, there’s the old guy who hasn’t got a tooth in his head who’s probably spent everything he’s got to get there and back on the day.

“And there’s some multi-millionaire sliding across the pitch on his knees to celebrate a goal with him.

“I suppose it is that fan’s club and his player, but wasn’t it better when we were all a little bit more equal than we are now?

“I think the whole thing has got a little bit out of sync. A reset is long overdue and I think it will come with this change.”

Douglas says the need for change doesn’t revolve solely around ensuring lower-league clubs receive more money.

“The EFL are absolutely clear on this,” he said. “It’s not just about redistribution, it has to go hand in hand with regulation and better financial controls.”