David Haythornthwaite hits out at parachute payments as AFC Fylde look for post-virus positives

In his latest video for the club website, Haythornthwaite discusses the issue of parachute payments, described recently as an “evil” by EFL chairman Rick Parry.

That is a view shared by Haythornthwaite, who said: “There’s an old saying that a lot of good comes out of bad and it’s true. Although this is a really bad situation, I think we’ll come out of it a lot better on the other side.

“I think we’ll have a more sustainable football set-up in the country because it’s certainly not sustainable in its present form.

“A lot of things have been talked about: parachute payments, salary caps, loan players etc.

“Rick Parry said, and I think it’s a very fair argument, that parachute payments totally distort the imbalance in the league.

“It results in clubs coming down from the Premier League with £40m, £50m or £60m and that of course gives them a massive advantage against the other clubs in that league.

“Rick Parry was saying it’s almost an evil and it should be gotten rid of. Having thought about it in our context, it’s certainly the case.

“Looking at our league this season, Yeovil Town and Notts County came down from the Football League and got some pretty reasonable payments. They also get some payments aligned to academy set-ups.

“I remember when Tranmere were down in the division, I think the figure was somewhere around £400,000 and you get it for two years.

“By comparison, we get £90,000, so I think this is an issue that definitely needs looking at.”