Rowett focused on Foxes safety, not cost of relegation

Leicester City manager Gary Rowett says he will not let the potential cost of relegation distract him from trying to guide the Foxes to safety.

The East Midlands club are second from bottom in the Championship with eight games left as they bid to avoid going down for the second time in as many years.

Tumbling from the Premier League to League One in the space of 12 months would come with major financial implications.

Broadcasting and central commercial payments would drop by around £115m from the £116.9m they pulled in when in the top-flight in 2024-25,, external while the club's matchday income would also take a huge hit when, instead of entertaining some of the world's most famous clubs in the richest competition, they would be left with comparative minnows playing in the third tier.

A final parachute payment of around £40m from the Premier League would soften the blow, but they would be going down as a side with one of the biggest wage bills in the Championship who will also have some of its highest earners still under contract.

Rowett sat down with BBC East Midlands Today to reflect on his first month in charge of the club, and was asked about the enormity of his rescue mission and "financial implications" riding on the job he does at Leicester.

"I probably don't try to think about that side of it too much, because that then starts to maybe affect your decision-making and maybe be swayed into certain decisions around that," Rowett said.

"You can look at the implications externally around not achieving your target, but I think for me it's just about doing what we need to do.

"Winning a game of football is no different whether you're seventh in the league trying to get in the play-offs, or whether you're 19th in the league trying to stay in a division.

"To me it's the same process. There might be a slightly different way of going about it mentally and psychologically, but it's the same. And I'll always try to simplify the game in that manner rather than think about the bigger picture really."

The financial situation at Leicester has been under intense scrutiny for a number of years now, with a series of legal battles fought over the club's spending.

They wrangled their way out of trouble in the past, but have this season been hit with a six-point penalty - which the club is appealing against - for breaching profit and sustainability rules when they won promotion from the Championship as title winners in 2023-24.

Leicester's accounts for the period ending 30 June 2024, showed a loss of £19.4m, which was down from the £89.7m they reported a year earlier.

Leicester City owner Khun Aiyawatt 'Top' Srivaddhanaprabha - whose King Power duty free business in Thailand has dealt with difficulties in recent years - told BBC Radio Leicester that he expects the club to comply with spending rules going forward.

If Leicester were to drop to League One at the end of the season, they would become the fourth side in 15 years to suffer back-to-back relegations from the Premier League, following Wolverhampton Wanderers (2011-12, 12-13), Sunderland (2016-17, 17-18) and Luton Town (2023-24, 24-25).

Former Sunderland director Charlie Methven recently outlined what financial strain dropping to League One had on the Black Cats, and spoke at length on the Business of Sport podcast, external about how the Foxes could face financial disaster.

Rowett, who has previously pulled struggling sides away from trouble as Oxford United, Millwall and Birmingham City boss, was given the Leicester job for 14 games to try to steer Leicester to safety this season.

He has since overseen one win, three draws and two defeats in his efforts to steady the Foxes.

The 2-0 victory he guided Leicester to against Bristol City earlier in March ended a 10 game winless run in the league and saw them keep their first clean sheet for 31 Championship matches, but the results have only dropped the Foxes further into relegation trouble.

The 52-year-old said he "turned down longer-term" job offers elsewhere before taking the chance to return to Leicester, a club he played for in the Premier League more than two decades ago.

"This was a job that I really liked the challenge of trying to achieve what we need to achieve in 14 games," he said.

"I want to keep the team in division, but most importantly I want everyone to feel proud - the team, the fans - about the club. And if I can achieve that and walk away then I'll be a happy man."