Any wealth redistribution deal between the Premier League and the English Football League should not come at the cost of the competitive allure of England's top-flight, Birmingham City co-owner and chairman Tom Wagner said on Wednesday.
Wagner, who became co-owner of Birmingham in 2023 along with NFL great Tom Brady, said that the Premier League still has potential to grow its revenue globally and that in doing so, it would benefit the rest of the pyramid.
The EFL is yet to agree a deal with the Premier League as it seeks a substantial offer that will help make the pyramid more sustainable, as the revenue gap between the top-flight and the second-tier alone has grown to more than five billion pounds ($6.74 billion).
West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady said in the House of Lords in July that a "credible and generous proposal to the EFL" had been rejected. However, this claim was denied by the EFL, who said only that discussions had briefly resumed.
Wagner, who is hoping his second-tier side soon become part of the Premier League elite, said the top clubs were entitled to protect their value.
"What I would say is that we'd love to have more revenue, and we'd love to see the pyramid strengthened, but what we don't want to see is for whatever percentage we land on result in a less competitive top of the pyramid," the American told reporters at the Leaders sports business conference.
"From an international perspective, it's not for me to say what the right percentage is, but I think what we want is for the top of the pyramid to still have that enormous brand value, be highly competitive internationally, and I think that that will draw more attention to English football generally.
"Our hope and our sincere belief is that it will lead to a growth in the overall amount of revenues that filter through the pyramid and its entirety."
The Premier League said it committed 1.6 billion pounds ($2.16 billion) to the wider football pyramid from its most recent broadcast cycle (2022-2025).
The British government's newly created independent football regulator (IFR) will have the backstop power to impose an agreement between the Premier League and Football League if no deal can be reached.
However, it may take time for the IFR to become fully operational.
In the meantime, Wagner said the Premier League still had an opportunity to increase its value without increasing the workload on players.
"When I say that it's going to grow, that doesn't mean that we have to play more matches or increase ticket prices - we can distribute to a broader audience," Wagner added.
"I would posit that there are many billions of people every match that are not consuming it either directly or indirectly.
"And so by growing our product to reach more people and to reach them in new ways, different types of content, that then creates more opportunity to continue to grow the sport globally."
($1 = 0.7422 pounds)