Time for clubs to wake up to reality

CLUBS must emerge from an 'Alice in Wonderland' dreamland of counting on TV incomes rising each year after the loss of the Football League's compensation claim against Carlton and Granada.

That is the view of players’ union chief Gordon Taylor, who has called for the game’s governing bodies to have more control over clubs’ finances as they are forced to re-enter the real world.

The chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association was reacting to the loss of the League’s legal bid to recover £131.9m from Carlton and Granada, the parent companies of the now defunct ITV Digital.