The Red Barons of L'Pool are moaning again. It's not fair, they say, the money earned from selling Premiership TV rights abroad is shared equally across the 20 clubs but it's only popular because of us, not the Bolton's of this world. We should get more. The current deal is current worth £3.2b in total, of which £1.4b is from overseas sales. He.s correct in that the UK portion is distributed on the basis of a performance formula but the abroad bit is given out equally across the clubs. So each gets 5%. This initial joust may be because L'Pool's American owners have an NFL model in mind. Don't know anything about how that works - DR any insights? What I do know is that the UK model has proved popular because of the collective pull of a competitive Premiership. Throw more money at top lot and you will dilute the chances of the rest remaining competitive. Evidence Spain, where each club negotiates it's price. For the last 3 years only Barca and Real Madrid feature. A similar model in Italy is pretty disasterous also. One take on L'Pool's stance is that it's actually an admission of defeat. They've messed up on moving to a bigger stadium. They can't get into the European Championships. So they have to come up with an alternative scam to increase revenue. Whatever, it's very shortsighted. The concern is what might happen behind closed doors among those who see a football club as an investment. A fuller report of their view is here - http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/oct/11/liverpool-breakaway-tv-deal
It will probably only be worthwhile for Man Utd and Liverpool. The other clubs wouldn't get half as much revenue as those two clubs, so they'd be left behind, and the main two would take over the Premier. So maybe they could leave the Premier since they obviously don't need the rest of us. Maybe they could play each other 8 times a season Fixtures like Liverpool v Manchester United Reserves Manchester United v Liverpool Reserves etc etc They could play games in China, America, Asia, and Australia Then Liverpool wouldn't have to build a new stadium Think of the money that would generate worldwide for those two clubs wouldn't it be great (not) to see who would win that 4 team League.
I don't care as long as I can see Fulham every week. This kind of thing, unfortunately, started in the States about 20 years ago with basketball and (American) football teams negotiating their own deals for TV rights. But don't Chelsea, Arsenal, ManU and Liverpool all have their own networks? I see those on Sky - what more do they want?
Liverpool again are punching above their weight... They think they are the giants of the 80s. Unfortunately for them that's not the case. And where do exactly think the popularity of the EPL arise from? Definitely not from the top 5-6 alone. I have across many people who are fascinated with teams like ours who they play to win and win in many cases. The spanish football is getting boring with 2 teams competing every year... Champions league is getting boring, speaking for myself, as we know the last 8 teams before even the competition starts. Recipe for boring football, the same teams over and over...
Liverpool have had a strong international following since the mid-70s and, although it's waned, there is still good support, but well behind ManU. Perhaps they are envious of the 2-club domination in Spain. This seems like another example of football greed. Frankly, the arrogance of this move is unsurprising - it takes 2 teams to play a match! Unless of course they want a 4-club competition - hardly something that would give them a regular income of the scale they seek.
It's off topic, but I'm going to watch every second of the Liverpool v Man U game Saturday. Should be an exciting matchup. I like watching Liverpool ... their fast, flowing game is easy on the eye. But I'm also curious if Man U can overpower them like they've done to most teams this year. I'm expecting a 1-1 draw, but should still be fun to watch.
Just for reference the Italians tried the 'negotiate your deal' but it was an unmitigated disaster and have since reverted back to the collective power of the league rather than the individual. I heard on Talksport a very good reason for Liverpool not to do it as they will end up with less revenue from negotiating TV rights than the collective. I think it would be a disaster but also think that the Prem clubs will all say no to the proposal. It will end up being embarrassing for Liverpool. Also, not very impressed with their CEO saying that no-one wants to see Bolton. They are one of the founding clubs of League Football, more history than you can shale a stick at, very disrespectful!
