Race for Premier League cash bonanza reaches climax

By Mike Collett

LONDON (Reuters) - The race for a place in the Premier League reaches its climax on Sunday with eight Championship (second division) clubs still in the hunt for promotion.

West Bromwich Albion are all but assured of going up barring a freakish set of results, while Stoke City, Hull City, Bristol City, Watford, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United are in contention to join them.

The rewards for gaining promotion are enormous with the three promoted teams set to receive the biggest financial boost in world club football, worth around 60 million pounds ($119 million) over three years.

Paul Rawnsley, the Director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte explained: "The financial prize for promotion to the Premier League will provide each promoted club with at least 35 million pounds of additional revenue in 2008-09.

"In addition, even if a club is relegated after one year at the top level, guaranteed parachute payments of over 12 million pounds per season will be received for two more seasons."

West Brom are virtually up, unless they lose at Queens Park Rangers and Hull win by 13 goals at Ipswich. The race for the second automatic promotion spot is between Stoke and Hull.

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