Is the Championship heading for financial ‘catastrophe’?

Four of the ever-present Championship teams from 2020-21 are also among the top six of the current second-tier clubs most affected by defeats.

Bristol City (£111m), Preston (£84.4m), QPR (£82.9m) and Middlesbrough (£80.4m) have also failed to make a profit for five consecutive seasons, as have Derby, Millwall, Oxford, Portsmouth and Swansea.

Coventry City, which is on its way to promotion to the Premier League this season, lost £29.5 million in the last five years, while Ipswich Town suffered a loss of £72.4 million.

Maguire likened Championship owners’ push for top flight to “buying a EuroMillions ticket”, with clubs chasing a TV deal worth £106 million in the Premier League plus a parachute payment worth £12 million in the second tier.

“If I’m a Championship owner, I know at the start of the season that, theoretically, I have a one in eight chance of getting promoted,” causing owners to “act like mum and dad’s bank”.

“They effectively give the money no questions asked, which is nominally a loan, but both parties know there is no chance of repayment.

“Stoke’s owners lost £90m, the Hemmings family in Preston put in £1m a month.

“And that has become the norm.”