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The Premier League is drawing up plans to present its clubs with fresh proposals for a financial settlement with the English Football League (EFL) as soon as next month.

Sky News has learnt that a meeting of the top flight’s shareholders on November 22 is expected to include a discussion on a range of new offers to be made to the rest of the professional football pyramid.

The meeting will take place a month after the government introduced legislation paving the way for the creation of an independent football regulator that will have the power to impose a far-reaching financial deal on the sport.

Insiders said that the Premier League had drafted in a heavyweight team of consultants, including Global Counsel, the lobbying firm founded by Lord Mandelson, to advise it on issues including the new regulator.

One cautioned that the formal agenda for the November 22 meeting had yet to be finalised.

However, several club executives said they expected it to be featured amid growing demand from some Premier League shareholders to present a revised deal to the EFL board, chaired by Rick Parry.

“Getting a deal done now that the EFL accepts would offer a five-year fix, which means it is resolved for the medium term and out of the regulator’s reach,” said an executive at one top-flight club.

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“A sensible deal is more likely to get support from 14 clubs [the requisite majority] now,” they added.

Protracted discussions at the Premier League about an £836m agreement to distribute a proportion of commercial income to the Championship, League One and League Two ground to a halt in March because of a stalemate between its clubs.

The 20 top-flight clubs, which include Aston Villa, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, had for more than a year thrashed out several versions of a ‘New Deal’ that included proposals for an increased levy on player transfers.

The most recent blueprint, which was never formally presented to the EFL, included provision for an immediate £44m payment to the lower leagues, followed by a further £44m within months.

This £88m, however, would have been pitched as a loan that would be repayable by the EFL over a period of more than six years.

The Premier League had decided to make the vote independent of any conditions attached to wider financial reform of English football, alarming a number of top-flight owners.

At one point in the autumn of 2023, a £925m agreement looked to be close.

Last December, however, Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, notified clubs that it was calling a temporary halt to talks with the EFL because of internal divisions about the scale and structure of the proposed deal.

Next month’s meeting has been scheduled to address many of the urgent issues facing the elite of English football, including prospective amendments to rules on associated party transactions following Manchester City’s recent arbitration proceedings.

Both the Premier League and its current champions claimed victory from the ruling, deepening the sense of civil war engulfing English football’s top flight.

Allegations that Manchester City committed 115 breaches of Premier League financial rules are being heard in a separate case, which remains ongoing.

Changes to the treatment of shareholder loans to clubs, which would affect a significant number of Premier League sides, will also be discussed next month.

The Premier League declined to comment on Saturday.

Headline: Premier League to debate new EFL settlement as regulator looms

Standfirst: English football’s top flight has engaged the lobbying firm founded by Lord Mandelson as it prepares to thrash out a new deal with the lower leagues, Sky News learns.

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Water companies blocked from using customer cash for ‘undeserved’ bonuses

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Water companies blocked from using customer cash for 'undeserved' bonuses

Nine water companies have been blocked from using customer money to fund “undeserved” bonuses by the industry’s regulator.

Ofwat said it had stepped in to use its new powers over water firms that cannot show that bonuses are sufficiently linked to performance.

The blocked payouts amount to 73% of the total executive awards proposed across the industry.

The regulator has prevented crisis-hit Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water from paying £1.5m in bonuses from cash generated from customer bills.

It said a further six firms have voluntarily decided not to push the cost of executive bonuses worth a combined £5.2m on to customers.

Instead, shareholders at Anglian Water, Severn Trent, South West, Southern Water, United Utilities and Wessex will pay the cost.

Money blog: Seven deals to avoid on Black Friday – and alternative buys

David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, said: “In stopping customers from paying for undeserved bonuses that do not properly reflect performance, we are looking to sharpen executive mindsets and push companies to improve their performance and culture of accountability.

“While we are starting to see companies take some positive steps, they need to do more to rebuild public trust.”

The announcement came in an Ofwat update on firms’ financial resilience and bonuses.

Industry lobby group Water UK said: “Almost all water company bonuses are already paid by shareholders, not customers.

“All companies recognise the need to do more to deliver on their plans to support economic growth, build more homes, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers.

“We now need the regulator Ofwat to fully approve water companies’ £108bn investment plans so that we can get on with it.

“Ofwat’s financial resilience report provides yet more evidence that the current system isn’t working, with returns down to 2% and eight companies making a loss.

“It is clear we need a faster and simpler system which allows companies to deliver for customers, the environment and the country.”

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Google could be forced to sell its Chrome browser over internet search monopoly claims

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Google could be forced to sell its Chrome browser over internet search monopoly claims

Google must sell its Chrome browser to restore competition in the online search market, US prosecutors have argued.

The proposed breakup has been floated in a 23-page document filed by the US Justice Department.

It also calls for lawmakers to impose restrictions designed to prevent its Android smartphone software from favouring its own search engine.

If the rules were brought in, it would essentially result in Google being highly regulated for 10 years.

Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% on smartphones.

Read more:
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Grieving parents tell Ofcom to ‘step up’ over social media content

Court papers filed on Wednesday expand on an earlier outline for what prosecutors argued would dilute that monopoly.

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Google called the proposals radical at the time, saying they would harm US consumers and businesses and shake American competitiveness in AI.

The company has said it will appeal.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and a coalition of states want US District Judge Amit Mehta to end exclusive agreements in which Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other device vendors to be the default search engine on their tablets and smartphones.

Google will have a chance to present its own proposals in December.

A trial on the proposals has been set for April, however President-elect Donald Trump and the DoJ’s next antitrust head could step in.

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Dozens of partners take early retirement from accountancy giant PwC

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Dozens of partners take early retirement from accountancy giant PwC

Dozens of partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Britain’s biggest accountancy firm, will next month take early retirement as its new boss takes steps to boost its performance.

Sky News has learnt that PwC’s 1,030 UK partners were notified earlier this week that a larger-than-usual round of partner retirements would take place at the end of the year.

Sources said the round would involve several dozen partners – who command average pay packages of about £1m – leaving the firm.

PwC named about 60 new partners earlier this year under Marco Amitrano, who was appointed as its new UK boss in the spring.

Mr Amitrano is understood to have informed partners about the changes in a voice memo, although one insider disputed the idea that the numbers involved were “significant”.

The partner retirements come as the big four audit firms contend with a sizeable bill from increases in the Budget in employers’ national insurance contributions.

It emerged this week that Deloitte is cutting nearly 200 jobs in its advisory business, according to the Financial Times.

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An ongoing shake-up of the audit profession is not being restricted to the big four firms, with Sky News revealing on Wednesday that Cinven, the private equity firm, was in advanced talks to buy a controlling stake in Grant Thornton UK.

The deal, which is expected to value Grant Thornton at somewhere in the region of £1.5bn, was announced on Thursday morning.

PwC declined to comment.

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