England kids fall victim to Sky cuts
SKY SPORTS’ drastic cost-cutting across the board after paying £11million a match to retain Premier League rights is being blamed for the demise of the Victory Shield, the home nations international Under 16 tournament.
The FA announced this week that England are pulling out of the event with immediate effect in order to achieve a more varied fixture list, including more foreign opposition.
But it is understood this surprise move has been prompted by Sky allegedly withdrawing their title sponsorship as well as reducing live coverage and wanting further changes to the format and another backer found.
Gareth Southgate, FA’s head of National Teams, said: ‘We feel due to the uncertainly around the Victory Shield and the potential changes suggested by Sky, it is a good time to review our fixtures and make an early decision.’
However, Sky say that their recommendations, including shortening the time between games, would have raised the profile of an historic competition that first took place in 1925 and whose notable players include Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Kenny Dalglish, Trevor Brooking, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.
Meanwhile, Sky’s price hikes involving all their programming since almost breaking the bank by committing £4.2bn to Premier League football are significantly more than the Isleworth spin machine suggested. The variety bundle has gone up 7.1 per cent, sports by 4 per cent — double for Virgin cable subscribers — the HD pack by 9.8 per cent and the full total by 6.4 per cent. IT did not give the impression that referee Martin Atkinson and his assistants were a team on returning from officiating Bayern Munich’s destruction of Porto in the Champions League. Atkinson and assistants Mike Mullarkey and Stephen Child travelled in business class on their Lufthansa flight home while fourth official Darren England was in economy. ENGLAND head coach Peter Moores (right) will report to the new England director of cricket, who in turn will have ECB chief executive Tom Harrison as his boss in the structure going forward. But it certainly helps Moores’ survival hopes that his assistant Paul Farbrace is highly rated and considered an important voice in the dressing room. BT SPORT are to broadcast the inaugural European Games in Baku in June, having finally agreed terms. The deal will be announced today along with Team GB, whose best known names are Olympic boxing and taekwondo gold medallists Nicola Adams and Jade Jones.