PANIC ensued after Liverpool FC managing director Ian Ayre had the temerity to suggest this week that who gets what out of television rights for screening football needs to be reviewed.
It has been reported that should the ‘big clubs’ be allowed to strike their own broadcasting deals overseas (as the Anfield mob have suggested) it will increase the gap between the ‘haves and have nots’ in the Premier League and rip our national game asunder for ever – never again shall the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town or Nottingham Forest be able to aspire to winning the English League.
To be honest I am amazed that so many of the pundits have failed to see the bigger picture in all this wanting more control of broadcasting rights among the so-called ‘big clubs’ – they are hankering after a European League.
In La Liga, Barcelona and Real Madrid already benefit from an arrangement where they earn almost 20 times more a year from television rights than the rest of their league rivals, while the level playing field in England meant that even Manchester United did not make twice as much as Blackpool did last season in brass from the box.
Why don’t the clubs in this country who believe they can make a killing out of television money – while showing little concern for killing off the concept of a domestic competition – just come clean and stop being so cagey about the issue?
For Liverpool and the other interested parties – who we will presume (probably correctly) are United and City of Manchester, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea – to get the changes made that they want, to allow them to control their own television rights when it comes to overseas markets while still remaining under the Premier League wing, they would need to gain the votes of 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs at the next annual shareholders meeting next summer.
Even to an innumerate person like me, the maths looks fairly simple and the other 14 clubs are likely to vote to retain the ‘big’ clubs, whose presence in the competition ensures they will get something out of the deal in terms of television funding and full grounds when the those clubs come to visit.
So why don’t the clubs who perceive there is more brass to be made abroad just admit that what they want is for what is laughingly called the European Champions’ League (I say laughingly as it is played to a conclusion as a knockout competition and those involved are no longer the champions of each nation) to become a genuine league competition?
The problem probably lies in the fact that it would not be a European League in any true sense.
For a start if a European League (though it would have to be hyped-up and sponsored so it would actually be named the ‘Barclaycard-Vodaphone it’s so awesome and exciting that I actually wet my pants at every game EuroMegaLeague’) was to come about it would be driven by those out to make money, and any of us can instantly name the clubs, or franchises as they would no doubt become, who have to be involved.
The big six (those already mentioned above) from England, Real Madrid and Barcelona from Spain, the two Milans and Juventus from Italy and Bayern Munich from Germany are givens.
So if it were to be a 20-strong league then 12 places have already gone with the balance rather heavily tipping in the favour of England.
But for a European League to be interesting it would have to include some of the rest of Europe, surely.
How would that be decided? For most football fans history would be the obvious path and thus Ajax, Benfica, Steaua Bucharest, Red Star Belgrade and Celtic among others as previous European champions would appear to be candidates.
However, on that basis Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have a stronger claim than all the English entrants aside from Liverpool and Manchester United.
But this is not about football or its heritage, but about cold hard cash, so Anzhi Makhachkala, the Dagestan-based club who are bankrolled by billionaire Sulieman Kerimov, would probably have more chance of being involved than past European champions like Feyenoord, Porto or PSV Eindhoven.
And to take such a radical step as to quit domestic competition also rules out the chance of winning the league title, the FA Cup or even the League Cup in this country – and with only one prize to go for it would seriously up the ante.
It would seem at the moment the riches on offer are not yet quite enough for the greed factor to kick in strongly – and see for the likes of Liverpool to say stuff your domestic league.
But the big question is how long will it be before that balance shifts?
