Sorry I don’t follow the logic mate. I don’t see how having the Saudis owning a PL club somehow affects the value of the broadcast rights? I reckon all of the current rights holders will be bidding less next time round, as they’ve been losing subscribers hand over fist during the crisis and it’ll take them years to get back to where they where. If they ever manage it.
The Saudi’s are said to have said (I know) they would bid £50M more than BeIN next time for the rights. If they don’t have a Club then they are hardly going to do that especially if PL rejects them. BeIN have already said they would pay less due to the piracy. One way to solve the piracy is for Saudi’s to have an interest in there being no piracy ie have a Club who receives some of the money paid for tv rights. From PL perspective win win.
Longer term if they don’t address the piracy. They will stand to lose most. If they accept the takeover and don’t address the piracy. Then they lose! If they don’t accept the takeover. And don’t address the piracy. They lose again!
And if the premier league do block the deal then they have to relegate Sheffield United do they not? Who owns them again?
This may be completely unrelated, however there's been a considerable increase in the price of crude camel sh!t. The pleasant stuff has remained has remained the same.
The Saudis have made life hard for themselves. Made themselves look silly. No question. I think that's probably one of the things that's been going on in the background. No doubt they have been trying to negotiate something to resolve the PL's concerns.
Just read a little background to explain the relationship between Saudi and Qatar. In 2013and 2014, Qatar signed the Riyadh agreements. Their emir promised to implement the terms of the agreement before the Gulf Co-Operation Council. Specifically: 1. Halt support of Muslim Brother, a wahabi terrorist group who carried out bombings and terrorist attacks across the Middle East. 2. Not to harbour persons with harmful agendas towards GCC or support those trying to topple the legitimate Government's in Egypt or Yemen. 3. Halting of employment and support of those with anti GCC agendas. 4. Agreed to work with other middle Eastern nations to support Egypt and promote its security as well as stop Al Jazeera insults towards Egypt. Non compliance allowed the signatory nations to take whatever security measures they saw fit in the interests of national security. Basically, Qatar has reneged on the Riyadh agreements and that is one of the reasons why there is a trade embargo. Due to national security concerns the Saudi's prevented BEin from enforcing their IP rights within the Saudi legal system. The WTO accepted that the TRIPS exemption applied on national security grounds, presumably because they had sight of the Riyadh agreements and were provided with proof that Qatar was a national security threat to Saudi, I. e., terrorism. That is something Qatar and the pro Qatar media keep quiet because it makes the Qatari's look very bad.
Allow the takeover and their Middle Eastern revenue will at worst stand still overall and at best grow a lot. Block the takeover and at best it stays the same with just Qatar bidding but at worst the piracy gets ramped up and the PL get less. this is likely the dilemma right now. mall Saudi need to do is commit to bidding for he next round of rights at or above the current level. Or accept a split of the rights at a pro rata higher level as a way of ‘compensating’ the member clubs. there’s also the matter of hundreds of millions of fresh money swilling around the PL transfer market which benefits many members.. and the thought of yet more talent from overseas being attracted to the PL.
Just imagine: Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Chelsea Tottenham Arsenal Leicester Wolves Newcastle All competing for the top 4. Most competitive league More stars More advertising globally More investment.
