How much less money Luton Town, Plymouth Argyle and Cardiff City will get after relegation to League One | OneFootball

Cardiff, Luton and Plymouth have all suffered relegation from the Championship this season

Cardiff City, Luton Town and Plymouth Argyle will all now be planning for life in League One next season.

The Bluebirds were the first team to be officially relegated from the Championship and ultimately finished bottom of the league table, with a 0-0 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion on matchday 44 consigning them to the third-tier for the first time in more than 20 years.

Plymouth were all-but-relegated that day, too, while Luton - who had been resurgent at the back-end of the season - joined the duo after suffering a 5-3 defeat at West Brom on the final day.

Argyle and Luton are much more familiar with League One than Cardiff, having last competed in tier three in 2023 and 2019 respectively.

The drop down from the Championship will hurt all three clubs emotionally, but it will also be difficult on a financial level as well.

Here we look at how much less money all three teams will earn after suffering relegation from the Championship…

Size of League One payments compared to the Championship

According to The Athletic, clubs in the Championship currently receive £3.92 million from the EFL’s central income, while third division sides earn £950,000.

That is going to be a significant decrease for these clubs, in particular Plymouth who already were under-resourced compared to many outfits in the rest of the second division.

The Premier League also currently spends £150 million per year sending solidarity payments to the EFL, which these three clubs will earn money from.

This does not include the £200 million paid in parachute payments, meaning the total money sent to the lower divisions equals £350 million.

However, the parachute payments are reserved for teams who have recently been relegated from the top flight, and thus will not concern Cardiff or Plymouth.

It’s been claimed that both teams are entitled to a solidarity payment worth £780,000.

This figure reportedly rises to £5.19 million for each team in the Championship, showing how big the drop in income will be for these teams now they’ve been relegated.

Luton will also be entitled to this £780,000 payment, but will also be in line to receive extra income from these parachute payments due to being relegated from the Premier League in 2024.

Luton Town’s parachute payments

Luton were promoted to the Premier League through the play-offs in 2023, and finished 18th in their one season in the division.

While Rob Edwards’ side put up a valiant fight to stay up, they were unable to compete with the rest of the division and went straight back down.

It was reported by The Athletic that they received the first of two parachute payments last summer, which was worth around £50 million.

However, that figure is set to drop to around £30 million, per the BBC, which is still a far greater figure than either Cardiff or Plymouth will receive as a consequence of their relegation to League One.

It was a difficult return to the Championship for the Hatters, who were unable to build any kind of momentum under Edwards after a poor run of form to start the campaign.