How Sunderland will share in the Premiership's riches

Many people complain that the cash generated by the Premiership for its member clubs only helps to widen the gulf between top flight clubs and the Football League.

And the financial differences have been highlighted with the confirmation of how much income Premiership clubs can expect to receive this coming season.

Consider this: SAFC's prize money for winning the Championship in 2006/07 was £50,000. Next season every Premiership club will receive a minimum of £720,000 - and that's just the prize money available for the club which finishes 20th; for each place above bottom, the prize money is expected to increase in multiples of £720,000.

In addition, every Premiership club is guaranteed to receive some £23 million in television money for the season. On top of that, every time Sunderland feature in a live, televised game (Sky/Setanta), the club will receive £0.5 million - ten times more for featuring in one single game, than for winning the entire Championship...