MY PLAN FOR TV S DILEMMA

EVERYBODY is talking as if clubs must pay back £750million to broadcasters tomorrow – but that is utter nonsense.

Because, just as the Premier League and Football League need the likes of Sky, BT and their other partners, so do those broadcasters need football just as well.

That’s why surely the best way to deal with the situation will be for the Premier League to strike an agreement with those companies.

It would say that, in the next threeyear block – to run from 2022 to 2025 – you will pay normal prices for seasons one and two, but get the final year gratis or somewhere close.

That’s the way the rest of business is reacting with mortgage holidays from banks and Government furlough schemes – it’s all money that has to be paid back, but not straight away.

It’s a case of “You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours down the line”.

Not only will that appeal to clubs, who can budget properly over five years before the free season arrives, it will also appeal to Sky and BT at a time when there’s concern among those companies about streaming services coming along and taking their slice of the pie.

TV companies don’t just broadcast football, either, so it’s not like they haven’t got advertising revenue coming in to get them through these dark days.

And when 2024-25 arrives and Covid-19 is, hopefully, a distant, terrible memory, they can say to football fans: “OK, we’re getting the game free this year, so we can hand some of the savings on to our loyal subscribers.

“You stuck by us during the coronavirus pandemic and so we are giving you a £35-a-month product for £19.99.”

Everybody wins.