The Premier League is reported to have offered lower league clubs a grant of less than ÂŁ50 million - a fifth of the sum EFL chairman Rick Parry says is required to cover the loss of income caused by the coronavirus crisis - with any further cash forthcoming a loan.
Parry said last week: "We’ve consistently said that we need up to £250 million - that figure hasn’t changed, we’ve been saying it since May.
"To be honest, that was based on the losses from last season and the assumption we’d play the whole of this season without crowds, which we thought was pessimistic at the time.
"So we’re not saying we now have to recalculate and come up with a completely different figure, it just means we’ll be getting onto the upper end of that figure.
"It’s something we’ve been working night and day on, we’re in dialogue with the Premier League, which is constructive, but we’re exploring other sources as well.
"It might take a package of different measures, we’re still hopeful we can get some support from the government.”
According to The Times, the Premier League, whose clubs spent more than ÂŁ1 billion during the transfer window, is only willing to offer a grant approaching ÂŁ50 million plus a repayable loan totalling just under ÂŁ100 million with interest charged at a similar rate to banks.
It’s reported that the Premier League will earn around the £50 million figure via an £8.4 million pandemic-related charge to the three promoted clubs in the next two seasons.
Other conditions tied to the bailout are understood to include the EFL supporting the Premier League in a dispute with the FA over a free market for the recruitment of 18-to-21-year-olds from overseas following Brexit.
EFL clubs are said to view this as a gun to their head, while Premier League sources refute that there is a non-negotiable offer of that type.
A week ago on Sunday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the top flight needs to "start looking after the football family as a whole” and expressed his expectation that a deal would be agreed last week.
However, given the distance between the two parties, an agreement still seems some way off and a meeting of Premier League chairmen which was scheduled for today has been put back to next week.
Meanwhile, some clubs in Leagues One and Two are concerned whether they will be in a position to pay wages at the end of October.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish outlined what’s understood to be a view held by a number of Premier League clubs that it’s not their responsibility to help out lower leagues sides, especially Championship clubs.
"Not one company in any other industry, to my knowledge, is being asked to bail out its competitors,” he told the Sunday Times.
"The supermarkets aren’t instructed to help the corner shops. Premier League clubs, while they may have some wealthy shareholders, are not awash with cash.”
Town could be as much as ÂŁ10 million down by the end of the season and owner Marcus Evans said late last month that the situation has illustrated the financial disparities in the game and that EFL clubs desperately need assistance from the top flight, and soon."
"There is a substantial imbalance in the game,” he said. "I have always had that opinion and have long campaigned for a more level playing field, whether it be in the distribution of parachute payments or Financial Fair Play.
"I know the EFL and the Premier League have been in discussions for months about securing the future of clubs and hopefully there will be some movement on that very quickly. There needs to be some help from somewhere or there will be an inevitable conclusion.”"