Tottenham Hotspur have been warned of the monumental financial hit they would take if they are relegated from the Premier League.
Spurs find themselves at the very real risk of going down to the Championship for the first time since the Premier League began.
The Lilywhites are one of five Premier League clubs to have never gone down to the second tier, but they now find themselves just five points off the drop zone, with 12 matches to go.
What makes the situation more concerning is that they have a new interim boss, Igor Tudor, who is new to English football, while Tottenham are also ravaged by injuries at the moment.
Financial expert warns relegation could cost Tottenham £100m
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has estimated the huge hit the Lilywhites would have to take financially if they find themselves finishing in the bottom three.
He believes that the overall impact of relegation for a club of Tottenham’s size could come to nine figures.
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Maguire told The Daily Mail: “The costs of relegation to clubs of that stature are probably in the region of £100million. The club that finished bottom of the Premier League two years ago, the last set of data we have, got £111m.
“I think by the end of this season, we’ll be looking somewhere in the region of £120m from the television companies alone. That will drop to around £45m in the Championship. So that is already about £75m.
“You then look at gate receipts. I don’t think clubs will necessarily have to cut prices as far as season tickets are concerned because you’re offering more matches in the Championship than in the Premier League but for matchday tickets, if West Ham have Hull or Swansea on a Tuesday night, they’re not going to be able to charge prices to the level they have in the Premier League.
“Matchday revenues from hospitality will be substantially down because the commercial department really will have their work cut out to sell all those boxes.”
“In the Championship, [relegated clubs] are getting probably a fifth or a 10th of the money coming from your shirt sponsor deals compared to the Premier League because your matches are not going out to all those different countries.
“You won’t be able to charge for perimeter advertising to the same extent and so on. You add all those numbers together, and they have a £100m black hole they will have to fill.”
Spurs could lose out on tens of millions even if they stay up
Even if the North Londoners manage to steer clear of relegation, they may have already cost themselves dearly by their poor domestic showing this season.
This is according to The Telegraph, Tottenham may lose out on ‘tens of millions’ in sponsorship revenue after this season.
This is because the club’s commercial partners are already reviewing the contracts they signed with Spurs after their extremely poor showing.