READING FC boss Paul Clement says clubs outside the Premier League will always hanker for more money from television rights.

Clement had his say yesterday in the wake of the controversial five-year £595m Sky Sport deal agreed by the English Football League this week.

Reading along with Brentford and Bristol City were the three Championship clubs on the EFL’s nine-man board to accept the proposal on Monday.

But a number of Championship clubs including Leeds United, Aston Villa, Derby County and Stoke are threatening to revolt because they feel the contract undervalues them.

The ‘rebel’ clubs met at Villa Park on Tuesday to discuss the best way forward and to explore the idea of forming a breakaway league where they would negotiate their own television rights.

Clement said: “How does this new deal – and I don’t know the answer – compare with other leagues across Europe? What are their deals like for clubs in the second to fourth tiers?

“We are blowing other leagues out of the water with this new deal. I think £600m is a lot of money.

“I suppose the issue comes with the gap between the top division and the second, third and fourth divisions where the gap is still very big.

“The Premier League have done an unbelievable job of selling the product worldwide and I can understand the teams below also want a piece of that.

“Talk of breakaway league or Premier League 2 is understandable from a business point of view.”

The new Sky deal, which will run from 2019-2024, is a 35% increase on the previous contract and will be spread out amongst the 72 clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.

However, it falls well short of the latest Premier League three-year contract with Sky and BT Sport worth a staggering £4.55bn between 2019-2022. Amazon also acquired a package a games, the value of which is unknown.

Nevertheless, Clement believes the new deal will give lower-division clubs the security they need.

“Some will benefit well from it and others will believe they aren’t getting anywhere near what they think they should be getting,” he added.

“I remember when I was at Bayern Munich and what they would get from television revenue when they were winning the Bundesliga year in year out compared to what the 20th-best team in the Premier League gets.

“It dwarfs them, as it does when you compare when Celtic get to the 20th team in the Premier League.

“That’s the market of the Premier League.”

He continued: “If you are a smaller club you want more. Would we want more money if we had the chance? Of course we would.

“The other thing you are dealing with are the Premier League parachute payments which are £35m a year for four years or something like that, when other clubs outside of the top division do not get that. These are the challenges you face.

“Even in the Premier League there are the haves and have nots when you compare Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool with Burnley for example.”

Reading face a tough week ahead as they return from a fortnight’s international break.

Clement’s men travel north today where they will base themselves for clashes at Wigan Athletic tomorrow (3pm) and Leeds United next Tuesday night (7.45pm ko).

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