IMG eye FA Cup refund

SPORTS management giants IMG, who paid the majority of the $1billion overseas rights for FA Cup Tv rights, will likely want to re-negotiate if the winter break is rubber-stamped.

IMG, who are reckoned in the sports industry to have vastly overpaid for their rights territories in the split deal with fellow agency Pitch International, will fight for a reduction if the fifth round is moved midweek and replays disappear.

Meanwhile, there looks like being no quick sale of the remaining two packages of the Premier League Tv rights, with executive chairman Richard Scudamore now prepared to wait until June or July if necessary to secure the right deals.

ONLY the RFU could tell councillors that they could not confirm who got their vote to stage the 2023 Rugby World Cup (won by France) because it was a secret ballot. Yet the minutes of the same council meeting reveal that the Irish RFU thanked the RFU for the support for their failed World Cup bid.