From BBC Sport, comes a report that Liverpool want to be free to negotiate their own overseas TV rights when the current deal expires in 2013. Top Spanish clubs, such as Real & Barca are already negotiating their own deals - to their considerable financial advantage, and it is claimed that EPL top clubs are being left behind, financially. According to current EPL rules, 14 of the 20 clubs would have to vote for any change. A couple of things trouble me about this. Firstly, Ian Ayre the Liverpool managing director is suggesting that they, Arsenal, Man Utd, & Chelsea deserve the lion's share of the revenue, as they are the clubs that most overseas viewers pay to watch. This may, or may not, be true. However, is Ayre suggesting that Liverpool negotiate their own deal? or is he suggesting some form of cartel with these other aforementioned clubs to, negotiate a seperate deal? Lastly, what would this mean if it is allowed to happen? Is it just what's right, and fair? Or will the rich getting far richer, and the poor getting poorer just lead to the inevitable breakup of the EPL, as we know it>
All of this absolute nonsense (wages, transfer fees, dodgy ground naming deals, tv rights etc etc) would just go away if FIFA grew a pair and introduced not just FFP but also a cap. Eg, you get £80m (or some other amount) a season, you choose how you spend it. Done. All other profit made by the club can go to the shareholders as far as i care. At least that way it is not a detriment to our game.
It would be interesting to see how they prove most overseas subscribers pay to watch the 'Big 4'. Barcelona and Real negotiate individual deals AFAIK. The Prem is currently the best, strongest and most watched league in the world, would it be dangerous to break a winning formula?
i think it would be for everyone bar liverpool and man utd. It seems they are the most popular teams in asia. Do chelsea/arsenal have _that_ many more fans abroad that Spurs? Not sure... Either way, the authorities (whichever ones) need to be introducing more competition, not less IMO
we already have a two tier pl,if this happens the top 4 will just get richer making it impossible for anyone else with the exception of the clubs with a sugar daddy,of ever catching up and making the league more compeditive
Some sports like golf or athletics can can be carried out alone. Football always requires another team to make the game possible. If you are in a league or a cup compettition all of the teams are of equal importance in making it work. You can only be top 4 if there are more teams below you. All this is basic and obvious, you need an association and/or a league to make the game possible. It follows IMO that you can't then seperate yourself from this association with other clubs when it suits you. Income from the game is always going to be a problem. How do you share it? Should two teams playing each other share the profits for example. Currently the home side takes the profits but shares the gate receipts in various ways with the visitors. It's not easy to have a simple formula for proceed sharing because of the disparity between clubs. Comparing Man United with for example Colchester United is almost impossible, history, fan base, investment, ground size, and now world wide fame all make it very difficult to decide how income from the game should be shared. What you can say is that allowing teams to negotiate their own TV deals will only add to the problem. Liverpool are a world famous team generating income because of that, but without Blackburn, Bolton, or even sometimes teams like Hartlepool, or Bournemouth they will not have a game. This must be taken into account, no team can be allowed to take all the income they generate because all clubs are dependant on other teams. This is why you need a governing body, it's just a shame that the governing bodies are becoming increasingly weak and impotent.
Their main argument seems to be "well Spain do it" and "Barca and Real can outspend us". Hopefully there'll be a nice 1:19 vote against and Liverpool can **** off.
Of course, you're right in what you say, Spurf. The problem comes from a lot of these big clubs being, or at least, attempting to be, profit making organisations. As with any corporate entity, the board has an obligation to maximise profits for the shareholders.
That's right, Tesco does not depend on Morrisons to play their game they play on their own to maximise their profits. Although even companies need competitors to make themselves work harder. Some people will always make money from other peoples games but if football forgets it's roots it's long term future will always be in doubt. The Roman games ruled the known world once, then they ran out of lions and christians willing to play. Oh! and the gladiators sold their rights to tv.
What disturbs me the most was this assertion by Ayre that it was the four clubs that he mentioned, who attract most foreign viewers, and therefore, by implication, deserve the lion's share of the money. It seemed to me that he was making a thinly veiled appeal to the others to join Liverpool in a seperate negotiating cartel. That, should it happen, would of course, be very attractive to the TV companies involved.
Liverpool should assess the things after this season, another one like the last two could see popularity drop...who wants to watch mid table clubs! As ever, they seem to assume they will be back where they think they belong. Not convinced about that myself.
I'm reading between the lines on this one: Liverpool are admitting they have no money because Comolli spunked it all away on the likes of Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson, and have resorted to their usual habit of whining to The Powers That Be so they get preferential treatment to sort it out. You know what? Let the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea split off and form their own Super League - the Premier League won't wither and die without them, and might be more worthwhile to watch as it will be competitive for the first time since its inception.
Even the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea, who would benefit from this more than Liverpool, have knocked this idea on the head. The Scousers vastly outspend most of their competition and they still want more. Disgrace. Still, I guess greed is how they started in the first place, so it shouldn't come as a surprise.
Last edited by spurfectionist; Today at 09:06 AM. Reason: wrote a backwards sentence Do you mean wrote a sentence backwards?
Some examples of backwards sentences: * We believe that West Ham is the only logical choice to move to the Olympic Stadium * Van Der Vaart's goal was a clear handball * We wasted all our money on Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson, so we want our own TV deal
Most clubs are at a disadvantage when compared to Barca and Real Lidls, but it's about more than just commercial power. They're given an unbelievable amount of help, both financially and in other ways. Add to that the tax situation, which is ridiculous when their whole country's skint and you have two clubs taking the piss, basically.
