THE RICHES on offer in the Barclays Premiership could make upwardly mobile Championship clubs a target for foreign investors.

That is the view of Alex Byars, senior consultant at Deloitte's sports business group.

And his comments come less than a week after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen revealed his interest in taking over at Saints.

Byars believes it may not be long before investors look to tap into the earning potential of often lower-valued Championship clubs.

He said: "Certainly, the gaps in revenue between Premiership and Championship clubs will be greater than it's ever been in 2007-08.

"It's easy, therefore, to conclude that someone with some money who wants to potentially take a club from the Championship into the Premiership has quite clear visibility into just how much extra revenue the club will receive if it gets promoted.

"Within the Championship, I would imagine there will be people out there who will look at the financial rewards of achieving promotion to the Premiership and may ask themselves how much would I have to invest in order to make that dream a reality?' "It's difficult to know how successful a strategy that might be because, at the end of the day, there are only three promotion spots.

"So if all or even half the clubs in the Championship are taken over by foreign investors all trying to achieve the same goal, there are only three slots available."

Deloitte estimate the three promoted clubs stand to make around £60million - the lion's share of that coming from improved television money in addition to anticipated increases in matchday, sponsorship and merchandising income.

Even if the clubs come straight back down, they will earn around £30million for their one season in the top flight plus parachute payments' of more than £10million in each of the subsequent two seasons.

See today's Daily Echo for full story.