PL’s Saturday takeaway

PREMIER LEAGUE chairmen gave unanimous backing yesterday to the next TV tender, including an extra package of Saturday night games. This is to accommodate the number of live matches being sold over the next three-season cycle, which is up from 168 to a maximum of 210.

The PL negotiators have been mandated to sort out the final total of matches to best suit the tender, which goes out before Christmas. As well as 28 games on Saturday nights, the two Bank Holiday and midweek packages will be beefed up.

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the Football League could announce they were cancelling their media Christmas drinks — plus peanuts and crisps — then a few hours later reveal they had signed a five-year extension to their Sky Bet title sponsorship from 2019-20 worth £8.5million a year. The £1.5m increase should at least pay for next year’s festive bash. SPORTS agency Paragon have chosen the Ashes build-up to publicise the price of booking their leading cricket clients — England’s record Test runscorer Alastair Cook and cricket director Andrew Strauss — for motivation, leadership and elite performance talks. Cook costs £10,000 and Strauss £8,000.