Scudamore’s plan to end TV money scrap
PREMIER LEaguE executive chairman Richard Scudamore is banking on a new formula for the distribution of overseas TV money solving an issue which is splitting the 20 clubs.
Scudamore has staked his reputation on finding a solution to the Big Six wanting more money from the overseas deal, when the PL have always previously divided the proceeds equally.
The issue will dominate this week’s summer meeting, with Scudamore not wanting clubs to leave Harrogate until there is the necessary 14-6 majority needed for a rule change.
Liverpool owner John Henry has ramped up the pressure, saying: ‘It’s a disagreement based entirely on governance. You cannot stick with the age-old media strategy any more than you can stick with the same football tactics for ever.
‘Everyone in the league knows what the large clubs bring to the value of foreign rights, but the large clubs do not have the votes to change something that should have changed as media rights changed over the past 25 years.’
The new proposal is for the overseas cut to be based on the top club income from domestic and foreign TV compared to that of the bottom club. Last season, leading earners Manchester united received 1.6 times as much as Stoke.
The Big Six would like a ratio of two to one while the others want that figure to be more like 1.3 to one. The big hope for Scudamore is that consensus can be reached somewhere around 1.6.
a lot of work still needs to be done, because only West Ham, Leicester and Everton were in the Big Six camp when the last TV meeting was cancelled last October with no hope of 14 clubs backing the change.
Henry added: ‘The top three clubs receive less overall TV money than the bottom three when you include parachute payments. It’s hard to imagine that continuing much longer.’
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shock departure of combative communications director Susannah Gill (right) from Arena Racing Company, who run 16 racecourses and 35 per cent of the fixtures, is understood to follow a major fallout with her boss Martin Cruddace. It reached the point where ARC top brass would not accept the outcome of an industry board meeting because Gill was there representing them.