Preston North End receive £1.1m injection as 'new' Premier League and EFL deal 'remains elusive'

A further £1.1million has been invested into Preston North End, according to figures on Companies House.

Released on January 16, documents show that the Lilywhites received another financial injection on December 8 - following investments in November, October and September. The statements of capital via allotment of shares can be viewed online.

Chairman Craig Hemmings, along with the family, continues to support PNE in the same way as his late father, Trevor. Shares do not count as debt, unlike cash payments. And a premium of £1,001 per share is paid, with the December investment the ninth of 2023.

As per the club's accounts for 2022/23, £10.6m was received from Grovemoor Limited while £6.7m more in interest free loans has been put in since the year end. As pointed out by football financial expert Kieran Maguire - and highlighted by PNE's chairman - North End are not helped by the Premier League's stalling over the 'New Deal For Football'.

Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters - alongside EFL chair Rick Parry - was quizzed on the matter by the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee this week. The talks covered the proposed, enhanced funding package for the EFL and its clubs.

Last year, the Premier League and EFL moved towards an agreement which would see EFL clubs receive 14.75% from a pool of domestic and international media revenues. That would be over a six-year period and boost EFL funding by more than £900m.

On Tuesday, Masters was asked why he paused discussions over extra funding to the Football League last month and said: "Erm, well if I could start by giving you a sort of progress report - I guess is the best way of doing it. I know it is the strong preference of this group that football finds a way forward - that football finds a way to do a deal and remove the need for a regulatory intervention at some point in the future.

"We agree with that and that's what we've been working towards over the past six-to-nine months. This goes back to November 2022, when the Premier League got a mandate from its clubs to negotiate with the EFL and FA on a whole host of issues that we felt needed reform. And, indeed the EFL and FA agree with us. So, not just finance but also financial regulation, the calendar and all sorts of other issues - immigration policy, those sorts of things.

"We've made very good progress on a lot of those issues. In fact, in the summer we agreed a deal with the FA, in principle, on a number of different points - on calendar and grassroots distributions. But, an agreement with the EFL remains elusive. We've been swapping proposals with the EFL over the course of the summer and into October.

"We have had counter-proposals back and I actually think the list of issues, between us, is relatively slim. But, they are critically important issues. We are now at a point where, I think our clubs absolutely want to see all of the detail - before we agree everything. So, we are in a situation where everything has to agree before anything is agreed."