It will only get tougher and tougher for Leicester City to gain promotion because of the expanding financial gulf between the Premier League and the Championship, Foxes Trust chairman Ian Bason has warned.
The Trust were part of the recent Supporters Summit held at the FA's St George's Park complex and the growing financial inequality in the game was one of the major talking points on the agenda.
The new Premier League television deal, worth £5.5billion, kicks in this season and it will make it even tougher for Championship clubs to compete with English football's elite.
The problem will be compounded by the new Financial Fair Play regulations.
In comparison, the current television deal for the entire Football League is worth £195million.
The teams coming down from the Premier League from last season, Wigan Athletic, Queens Park Rangers and Reading, will get £39.8m in parachute payments from the current deal. But that is set to rise at the end of this coming campaign to around £63m over four years.
That is more than champions Manchester United earned in Premier League TV money last season – and that was a record amount.
With Financial Fair Play also kicking in at the same time, which restricts clubs in the Championship to spending no more than £3m above their total revenue income – although club owners can pump up to another £5m into their clubs in equity – it means the clubs coming down have a massive advantage over their Championship rivals.
Clubs like Leicester City, who have wealthy benefactors and the financial support to compete with the relegated clubs, are restricted on their spending, effectively having one arm tied behind their backs.
Bason said the issue had become a major cause for concern among supporter organisations within the Football League.
"It will definitely create an uneven playing field in the Championship," said Bason. "Clubs coming down will be getting £24m for the first year and something like £14m in the second, and more in seasons three and four. That is a massive advantage.
"Wolverhampton Wanderers obviously have slipped through the division but that is uncommon.
"And, if they are allowed to keep their payments in League One, that will give them a significant advantage on the rest of the division.
"It will be compounded by FFP as the clubs who have been prepared to gamble to get up are no longer able to.
"There may be a few clubs that ignore FFP in the hope that they get up and the financial reward will offset the punishment.
"Queens Park Rangers may decide to do that with the owners they have got.
"It seems odd that a club coming down has £24m to put into the pot straight away while an owner can't put in more than £5m above their revenue. It is a massive difference.
"You have to believe then, that as long as the clubs coming down have got it right with their wages, they will be more likely to go straight back up again.
"It is going to make it a lot harder for Leicester to get up. They can't throw money at it like they have done before, under FFP.
"I think FFP is the right way to go for financial stability in the game, but the Premier League television deal is making it a lot tougher for other clubs."
The massive cash boost has not, however, lead to a reduction in ticket-pricing for supporters, leading to protest marches on Premier League headquarters, in London, last week.
"The message has got to go back that there needs to be some fairness here," Andy Burnham, the former Culture, Media and Sport secretary told the conference.
"It's time for the players, the clubs and everybody to think a bit more about those supporters."
That may prove to be wishful thinking.
