West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United may be about to return to the Premier League.

Seeing both the Baggies and the Whites promoted won’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone after the two sides have dominated the automatic promotion spots for the large majority of this season, but the manner of their ascension may be an eyebrow-raiser.

Indeed, reports are stating that the pair could go up without playing all of their league games, and discussions about a 22-team Premier League season have apparently been tabled in a recent meeting.

Promotion to the top-flight would be brilliant for either side, but if the first division has 22 teams next term, Leeds and West Brom won’t earn as much as they usually would.

The equal share payments and international TV money are two sources of income that the league equally distributed, and they will now have to be dished out between two extra sides.

Watch Leeds United Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

With the number of teams going from 20 to 22, that means each team will earn 10% less from these payments due to the extra clubs requiring payment.

If we take the most recent numbers available to us, Leeds and West Brom will likely earn £8.7m less than a Premier League outfit usually does if they enter into a 22-team division.

While that sum doesn’t seem like a lot when 19 out of 20 teams are earning in excess of £100m, that figure could prove decisive come the end of the season.

Leeds have seemingly already spent a lot of their summer transfer budget on obligation to buy fees that will be triggered upon promotion so an extra £8.7m would have been very handy for the Whites.

The Baggies are in a similar situation in that their squad will need a bit of a rebuild after the loan deals for likes of Filip Krovinovic, Grady Diangana, Matheus Pereira and Callum Robinson expire and they either have to pay to retain them or bring in replacements.

Of course, promotion will still be lucrative, but it won’t be as financially beneficial as first thought if the idea of a 22-team league comes to fruition.

In other news, Leeds don’t need to worry about one man’s future.