Lord Sugar warns Premier League clubs over debts

Lord Sugar Tackles Football
Watch on BBC 2 on Sunday at 2100 BST and afterwards on iPlayer

Lord Sugar thinks it is too easy for clubs to go into administration

Former Tottenham owner Lord Sugar has hit out at Premier League clubs for not working in a businesslike manner.

Speaking on Lord Sugar Tackles Football, a BBC 2 programme to be shown on Sunday, the entrepreneur takes issue with the amount of debt in the game.

Lord Sugar said: "When you look around, you see that the collective debt is £3.3bn.

"Most of the clubs are spending more than they receive. It is not a business."

Lord Sugar is usually seen on TV screens as the star of BBC 1 reality TV show The Apprentice. In his football programme, he interviews major figures including Wigan owner Dave Whelan, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore and football agents.

Lord Sugar was at Tottenham when the original Premier League TV deal was agreed with Sky. He believes club owners missed a chance to take action to ensure the long-term financial security of the game.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he added: "I feel personally responsible for helping to lay on the amount of money [paid by Sky for TV rights].

"At the second round of negotiations, I did point out we should stick half of the money in a trust but I got laughed out of the room."

It's a bit like telling someone who is overweight not to eat so much Lord Sugar

Lord Sugar also believes it is too easy for clubs to go into administration, saying: "It is absolutely outrageous.

"Clubs, when they go bust, need to completely go bust and start from scratch again, instead of going bust on a Wednesday and playing again on a Saturday."

He admitted some frustration at not having a say in what happened with the game. "I don't have any jurisdiction, I just did [the programme] for the BBC.

"It's a bit like telling someone who is overweight not to eat so much. They are not stupid people, it's just whether they do something about it."

He also admitted to frustration at the attitude of some club owners and football administrators towards debt.

"I don't think the people I interviewed, apart from Dave Whelan, came up with anything very constructive.

"Generally there is what I call the ostrich culture. You bury your head in the sand. We know we've got a problem."