Neilwillgowithmore than ‘aw the best’ if he seals big TV deal
IT’S the scourge of most offices. The Leaving Card. Fire alarms don’t clear desks as quick.
Timing is everything when it comes to these things. Pass around the envelope the week before payday and all the outgoing colleague will be getting is a witty message but, in the days after, they might get a cheeky fiver to go along with the banter.
That’s all in the real world, of course, not the EPL fantasy land where the streets are paved with gold and the swings are coated in sugar candy.
Good luck to whoever is organising the collection for Richard Scudamore, they will need a wheelbarrow.
The news top-flight clubs down in England want to do a whip round for the departing chief executive has got punters up in arms.
It’s understandable. Asking the 20 Premier League sides to pony up £250,000 a skull for a guy who already earns around £2.5million a year is some brass neck.
The game’s gone, everyone screamed. Modern football, plenty lamented. Just another example of how our working-class obsession is so far detached from the fans they need a Hubble Telescope to take a peek.
But hang on a minute. Yes, the numbers are obscene and, of course, the money could have been invested in grassroots.
It’s a sickener when you think that cool five mill could build about a dozen indoor training centres all around Scotland.
But park all that stuff for sec. Scudamore deserves every penny. If ever there was someone who warrants a golden handshake, it’s this guy.
Look at the figures. When he joined the league, their TV rights were worth about £670m.
The last deal he brokered was worth £5.14 BILLION. The next, one locked down for 2019 to 2022, will earn English clubs around £9b. Yes, nine billion quid.
Clubs down there are fitting diving boards to their stadiums so they can do a triple somersault on their way to diving into the pools of dosh.
Scudamore has somehow managed to box the English game as a product that’s the “Best League in the World”, even though it’s hard to get your head around it when you’re trying to convince the wife to let you watch Crystal Palace v Watford on a Monday night.
The bubble will burst at some point down there but they will look back at this period with awe at how they managed to pull it off. A £5m leaving present is the least he deserves.
The sad thing for us is that his cheque will be nearly double what our
Asking the 20 Premier League clubs to pony up £250k a skull is some brass neck
Premiership winners bank. Scudamore’s success only shames us even more when we are gathering around the table to talk terms over TV deals.
The SFA have flogged a chunk of the Scottish Cup off to another subscription channel while the SPFL are reaching crunch time in their discussions over a new deal.
It’s time for Neil Doncaster to deliver. No one is expecting billions but we should expect more than we’re getting.
There will come a time when Doncaster decides he’s had enough of the Scottish football madhouse but the next few weeks will dictate what will be in his leaving card.
It’ll either be bulging full of notes or simply have a few half-hearted scribbles saying aw the best. OUR TOP WRITERS GIVE THEIR FEARLESS VERDICTS EVERY DAY IN RECORD SPORT