SCREEN GRAB

SPFL strike £700,000 deal with BBC for Championship games ... but most of the cash will go to top-flight clubs

PREMIERSHIP clubs will gobble up the lion’s share of the cash generated by a new £700,000-a-year deal to show SPFL Championship games on BBC2 on a Friday night.

Sportsmail understands BBC Scotland have secured rights to show 20 live second-tier games — both this season and next.

The new contract is due to kick in before Christmas, with Championship coverage switching from BBC2 to the corporation’s dedicated new Scottish channel when it launches in February.

Under SPFL rules, however, the money will be added to the overall cash pot to be distributed at the end of the season.

And clubs finishing in the bottom half of this season’s Championship will earn less than £7,000 a year from the new windfall — despite taking centre stage on the new channel.

In contrast, the winners of this season’s SPFL Premiership stand to earn 13.4 per cent of the overall prize pot — meaning they could earn almost 12 times what some Championship sides make.

Chairmen of the Championship clubs argued for a bigger slice of the cake at a

recent meeting of the second-tier sides. However, an SPFL source told Sportsmail: ‘The Championship clubs were warned that if they pushed for more cash for their contribution to the prize money then Premiership clubs could do the same when the next television deal is signed.’ The SPFL will invite broadcasters to bid for the biggest television deal in Scottish football history this month. BT Sport and Sky Sports currently pay around £21m a year to share 60 SPFL league games. And chairmen expect the two to go head-to-head to nudge the next contract closer to £40m a season when the current deal ends in 2020. Clubs have been sent advance copies of the tender documents due to go out to broadcasters this month. Amazon, Facebook and newcomers Eleven Sports have all held discussions with the league. And Premiership clubs hope to tie up a new contract by early next year when the broadcast giants divert their attentions to a new Champions League broadcasting deal from 2021. The previous record deal signed by the Scottish League was a £31m-a-year contract with Setanta Sports a decade ago.

GLASGOW CITY will play Barcelona in the last 16 of the Women’s Champions League. The first leg in Spain is on October 17 or 18, with the return leg on October 31 or November 1. Meanwhile, Scotland’s record goalscorer Julie Fleeting is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame 2018.