Prem clubs in a rage over payper-view cash-in

PREMIER LEAGUE clubs are frustrated at being painted as the bad guys over live games being shown on pay-per-view.

Clubs have been told it was the broadcasters Sky and BT Sport who set the £14.95 price that caused a fan backlash.

The extra games are being shown from this weekend, but an executive from one club said even if they doubled the price it would “not touch the sides” when it came to making up their losses in revenue from gate receipts and commercial and TV deals.

Most clubs are refunding fans their season tickets, so many are better off even after having to shell out for the pay-per-view games.

The average armchair fan now pays up to £200 a month for their TV subscription and will have to find another £14.95 for games, starting with Newcastle v Man United tomorrow night. But the clubs argue that those games were not due to be shown live, fans do not have to pay if they don’t want to watch and they didn’t set the price.

They feel the message was badly handled.

Premier League boss Richard Masters (below) did a Zoom call for the media in which he did indeed suggest it was broadcasters who set the price causing uproar.

The theory as to why it is £14.95, according to one insider, is that TV firms don’t want the hassle of having to show extra games and it is the clubs who pushed for it to let fans watch extra matches. TV companies are fed-up of losing the exclusive feel of their live Prem games and did not want to play ball.

That is a bit rich as Sky, for example, do now show 12 extra games a season. They still charge big subscription fees, even though they have scrapped most of their programming and shows that are left are poor, barring Jeff Stelling’s Soccer Saturday with a much-changed cast list.