Manchester City’s ongoing legal battle with the Premier League has dealt another blow to EFL clubs, who are fearful of further delays over reaching an increased funding settlement from the top-flight which was billed as the so-called New Deal for Football. 

The Premier League was pushing its members to agree an £836m package for the EFL earlier this year but talks were put on hold in March following a rebellion from the clubs, who wanted to prioritise making changes to their own competition’s financial regulations.

Top-flight teams subsequently agreed to trial a new system of squad cost control rules including the concept of “anchoring”, whereby the spending of the top clubs is directly linked to the income of the league’s bottom club, but even those discussions have been put on the back-burner due to the fallout from Manchester City’s associated-party transaction (APT) challenge last week.