THE need for Wanderers to survive in the Premiership has never been greater, following the Football League's defeat in the ITV Digital row.

League chairman Keith Harris warned today that relegated Premiership clubs face going out of business as a result of the drop in TV revenue outside the top flight.

"Leaving the Premiership was a hell of a drop financially before this. Now it will be even greater," Harris said.

"Some clubs will go to the wall. They will certainly go into administration."

With the League's bid for compensation from Carlton and Granada over the failed ITV Digital deal now seemingly dead and buried, Division One clubs must face up to a huge cash shortfall.

And a drop in revenue from £3million per season to around £900,000 will hit clubs used to raking in the Premiership riches.

"Bradford is a great example," Harris added. "Two years ago they were in the Premiership and boy, have they suffered. Barnsley have done likewise.

"Clubs who come down bring with them the costs associated with a higher income. They are faced with much lower income and Division One is hard to get out of.

"Very few who come down go back up. Ipswich went up and did well initially. Now they are back down again."

Wanderers have twice suffered the bitter financial blow of relegation from the Premiership - in 1996 and 1998 - but Sam Allardyce knows the consequences of failure this season would be more disastrous than ever.

The Reebok boss warned in an exclusive BEN interview yesterday: "If we lose our Premiership status, the ramifications are so massive financially - more than they have ever been before - and it might be difficult to repeat what has been done over the last few years ... the wage cuts a football club has to achieve when it is relegated now are really scary."

But Wanderers have learned lessons from the past and from what has happened to other clubs who have overstretched themselves in pursuit of Premiership success.

Instead of spending huge fees on the transfer market and committing themselves to long, expensive contracts, Allardyce has been able to recruit top internationals such as Youri Djorkaeff and Jay Jay Okocha on free transfers and two year deals.

Nevertheless, while the collapse of ITV Digital has been a salutary lesson to all clubs - in the Premiership as well as the Football League - some continue to spend big in pursuit of success.

Cardiff City, who play host to Wanderers in a friendly at Ninian Park tomorrow, have spent £8.3 million in transfer fees in the two years since former Wimbledon chairman, Sam Hammam, gained control.