Uefa wants more international double-headers and early kick-offs in bid to increase TV revenue International qualifying games could be played on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, with midweek games kicking off in new early-evening slots, Telegraph Sport can reveal. All change: England could soon be playing more double-headers and earlier in the evening if a Uefa proposal to boost television revenues is approved by delegates Photo: REUTERS By Paul Kelso, Chief Sports Reporter 7:00AM BST 21 Sep 2011 The radical changes to scheduling, being developed by Uefa to try to increase broadcast revenue, could see international âdouble-headersâ played on paired days of Thursdays and Sundays, Fridays and Mondays or Saturdays and Tuesdays. Uefa is also considering bringing in an early-evening kick-off for midweek games so that broadcasters can show two games back-to-back in international weeks, rather than just one game starting in the 7.45pm slot. Presently international âdouble-headersâ â two matches in a 10-day period â are played on Friday night and the following Tuesday, a move designed to placate clubs unhappy at players not returning from international duty until the Thursday before club fixtures. The Friday-Tuesday dates have proved unpopular with supporters and some associations, however. The potential changes to the scheduling of internationals were discussed by Uefa delegates at a meeting of all 53 member nations in Cyprus on Monday. The meeting also discussed changes to the international calendar and floated the idea of giving up the single match dates unpopular with clubs in favour of more double-headers. The proposals are part of Uefaâs plans to sell television rights to qualifying matches collectively, mirroring the successful model it has developed for the Champions League. The centralisation model was a major election pledge of Uefa president Michel Platini, who has promised that it will deliver increased revenues and certainty. The proposal, which will see the 2016 European Championship qualifiers sold collectively, was particularly popular with smaller associations that rely on the luck of drawing a major nation to boost revenues, and they happily signed across their rights to Uefa. To secure support from the big five nations â England, France, Holland, Germany and Italy â as well as some medium-sized nations, Uefa had to offer guarantees above present income levels. The Football Association for example secured a guarantee of £110 million over four years. With the economic climate worsening and new broadcast deals delivering only modest increases â Serie A secured a six per cent increase in its latest deal, only marginally above inflation â there is now concern that Uefa may struggle to deliver the sums promised. Uefa sought to allay those fears by reassuring members that the guarantees will be fully underwritten, and received unanimous backing to proceed with plans to go to the market in the new year. Hence the search for ways of delivering greater value to broadcasters by offering them flexibility in scheduling of both days and kick-off times. With the 2016 European Championship expanding to 24 teams for the first time, making qualifying easier for the larger nations and potentially less dramatic, Uefa is also keen to interest broadcasters in different ways. Challenges remain if Uefa is to meet its deadline of going to the market early next year. It has yet to satisfy the agencies who have long-term rights deals with a large number of European nations that they will be adequately compensated for giving up their properties. Clubs are likely to reject any changes that eat further into their time, and will remain concerned that Champions League revenues could be used to make up any shortfall for national associations. Who realy gives a **** about qualifiers any more, just interupts our season, and they wont make any money off me, thats for sure.
Bill, I understand the anger you feel here, but what do you expect? It's now about money. IF people stopped paying ridiculous sums each month for the privilege of watching a bunch of overpaid, greedy, self-inflated *@$?#, then we wouldn't have this. There'll be loads of people who decry this - for me they'd better not pay SKY/ESPN anything before they comment. Love it when people rant about changes to the Sat 3 pm ko schedules, and then I ask them if they have SKY? Works a treat.
I dont watch much TV, but if i only had 4 channels (cant get 5 or freeview here, they just dont work) i would go frigging mental, not with sky mind but Virgin Media, not sure if its still like this with Sky, but it used to be if you wanted the Movies you had to get the sports channels as well, and vice versa, so its not all about the football, in all honesty I watch more NFL than football on Virgin. But then I dont rant about not having 3pm kick offs on a Saturday, I also love internationals, so cant see a problem with this tbh.
Binned SKY years ago, wont even watch it in the pub, my laptop usually gets me some form of football, as for internationals/FIFA. I dont bother with the former anymore, let down too often. and the latter will kill club football the way they are going. so no money from me.
Now England have dropped 4 places to 8th, thought we had just won some games and not lost, yet srill drop, mind having them in 4th was ridiculous... Brazil 7th???????? http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/r...r=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=208
have to admit and say i have no idea Bulgaria 0 - 3 England England 1 - 0 Wales We lose 4 places and get -88 points Switzerland 3 - 1 Bulgaria They gain 12 places and +129 points http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings Its there how they do it, if anyone can be arsed to look.
Think you were right to add `if anyone can be arsed to look` I just finished reading it, some if not most passed right over my head, will however take another look, a lot of the fomulea is just smokescreen. Im confused, but its better for the England team to think they hold eigth position, so they might try and improve on this stat. If they thought they were no 1, the idle self centered overpaid team would just lay back, then get battered by someone like Mali or Phaero islands.
