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The increasing influence of money in English football was evident with such events as the first £1m transfer in the game, that of Trevor Francis from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. The first £2million player transferred between English clubs was Tony Cottee, who moved from West Ham United to Everton in July 1988 - although several players had already been sold by English clubs to foreign clubs for the same or higher fees. In the summer of 2013 Greg Clarke and the board members of The Football League gave permission for SISU (also now known as Otium) to take Coventry City Football Club to play their home games 35 miles away in Northampton, despite this being against Football League rules, which also state that any such move should not have detrimental affect on the fans of that club. On Saturday 20th July 2013 approximately 7000 angered supporters of Coventry City and other clubs marched from a park near to the old Highfield Road ground to Coventry City Centre to demonstrate against this action and the leagues inability to enforce the fit and proper person test against football club owners. This has been raised in Parliament and a petition over 14,000 strong has stated Coventry City must play in Coventry. Despite years of maladministration and flagrant disregard for the club and it's fans SISU insist they have been locked out of Coventry City's state of the art Ricoh Arena, whereas the stadium owners have clearly stated there is no lock out and they would welcome Coventry City to play in their own stadium.
Before the formation of the FA Premier League, the highest transfer fee paid was £2.9million for the transfer of Dean Saunders from Derby County to Liverpool during the 1991 close season. The first £3million player was Alan Shearer, who moved from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers in July 1992, the summer before the first Premier League season. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled that would bring more money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League.[SUP][15][/SUP] The newly formed top division would have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League licence to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe.[SUP][16][/SUP]

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