Simon Jordan insists it’s time the Championship is taken to the next level to reflect its status as one of the best-supported leagues in European football.
The former Crystal Palace owner says the formation of the Premier League has been a ‘force for good’ at the elite level, but also wreaked havoc on the lower tiers of English football.
And in an impassioned rant about the current state of the EFL, Jordan told talkSPORT it’s time they made amends.
With the number of ‘big clubs’ currently in the Championship, Jordan says the EFL should enter broadcast deals alongside the Premier League to ensure clubs in the second tier get a greater share of the finances.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Wednesday, Jordan said: “The EFL is dramatically impacted upon by the Premier League.
“The Premier League is a force for good because it brought us the elite league in football, but it also left carnage. All the Premier League care about is the Premier League.
“The EFL could and should have got a very strong and effective CEO who takes the Premier League to task, who makes it negotiate at the same time as the Football League and makes it understand that every season the Championship supplies 14 per cent of the Premier League’s product and takes 14 per cent of the Premier League’s product.
“What I mean by that is three teams go up and three teams go down. Unlike the MLS and American models, jeopardy is a key component in English football and this is a major negotiating tool and it requires real strength.
“What the EFL has done, because of the 72 clubs with different agendas, atrocities have been forced upon them like the Elite Player Performance Program, the restructuring of academies that effectively took away the opportunity for clubs down the pyramid to have compensation rights.
“The EFL is a constitution that is unwieldy. It doesn’t work. You can’t have 72 voices in a room. You can barely have 20 in the Premier League.
“What would I do? I would empower the Championship to negotiate a better and stronger broadcast deal in tandem with the Premier League and make sure the Championship filters down to the other leagues properly.
“I think the current deal is 80 per cent of broadcasting revenue goes to the Championship, 12 per cent goes to League One and eight per cent to League Two.
“Constitutionally, I don’t think the voting rights of League One and League Two clubs should carry the same criteria as Championship clubs – they should have more power.
“Nobody cares about Macclesfield playing Lincoln, but people do care about Palace playing Leeds.
“I think the EFL has become the runt of the litter, even down to the way it promotes itself, even down the fact they allow the Checkatrade Trophy to have under-21 teams from Premier League clubs.
“I don’t like this!
“The Championship is the jewel in the crown of the Football League, it’s the second-best supported league in European football. Come on now!”