By Luke Cawdell

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has reacted with dismay at the Premier League’s plans to deny lower league clubs the chance to cash in on their prized assets.

Last Thursday, the Football League voted through proposals from the Premier League to introduce their Elite Player Performance Plan - under the threat of them withdrawing their annual £5m payments to youth development if they voted against the measure.

Teams like Gillingham will no longer be able to use tribunals to decide on a fee for their rising academy stars. Instead, each club’s academy will be rated and a flat rate fee introduced.

Mr Scally (pictured), who was unable to attend the meeting and did not vote, said: "I am concerned and hope the Government take the initiative and start looking at the Premier League’s finances and the distribution of those finances.

"(I hope they) put pressure on the authorities to come up with a system that protects football, otherwise the lower 48 clubs in the Football League are going to get squeezed out of football in time.

"This will mean that the value of the players will be less than the market value that we would have otherwise received if a Premier League club came in for them.

"It’s just a case of, ‘well, we’ll just give all the cream away to the Premier League for virtually nothing because they say they will develop the players and make them more elitist’.

"There is no evidence of that so far and, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. I was staggered that (so many) voted in favour. I wouldn’t have voted in favour.

"It needs a lot more work done on it and this is yet another example of the Premier League trying to carve up football."

He added: "The sooner the government gets hold of football and protects the game - because that’s what it needs,
protecting - the better."

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