WHY SO SLOW OUT OF THE BLOCKS?
THERE are cases of teams starting slowly in games or not being ‘on it’ — and, before they know it they are swept away by their opponents in the Premier League. Manchester United at Huddersfield (lost 2-1) and Chelsea at Crystal Palace (lost 2-1) are possible examples. Sometimes, as a manager, you can focus so much on the tactical game plan, making sure everyone knows the detail, you can overlook the basics — the ‘play with passion’ or the ‘let’s get out the blocks fast’ instructions. Jose Mourinho (right) touched on it because we all expect our players to be naturally ready for that, particularly away from home against a newly-promoted team. You don’t expect Manchester United to be undercooked and the same with Chelsea at Palace. Both looked surprised by what hit them. The United players are taking the heat in the aftermath of a poor result at Huddersfield but the staff will inquest it and, as manager, you kick yourself for not triggering your natural lieutenants with the right messages.
GREED is good. So said Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall
Street. But in football, is greed good?
Without doubt, money has united the Premier League, keeping together a plethora of diverse, difficult clubs and owners.
But could it all be undone by greed? The self-anointed Big Six have yet again decided they want more money from the massively enhanced Premier League TV deal — this time from overseas revenues, the next frontier where much, much more money can be generated.
In their eyes, they are the only really interesting element of the Premier League to overseas viewers. I wonder what the moremoney-than-god foreign owners of Leicester and Southampton, who, by that rationale, bought the proverbial runts of the Premier League’s litter, make of that?
I am a capitalist. I believe in meritocracy. But the Big Six have decided — despite wanting all the advantages of collective benefits — that unless they get what they want, they may just break away and sell their rights individually. Come on now. Really? Sit down and shut up.
Let’s remind ourselves of these Big Six clubs. Visionary Arsenal, who back in the day preferred ITV to Sky and collect the highest gate receipts in the world; Chelsea and Manchester City, who are petro-money-infused clubs running rampant; Manchester United, a club bought and funded solely by debt; the perennial Johnny-come-lately Tottenham and Liverpool, who have never won the Premier League.
The current TV deal is worth around £8.5billion, of which roughly £3bn comes from overseas rights. You don’t need to be Bill Gates to predict overseas rights are going to grow.
It’s my belief that domestic rights are tapped out. Sky and BT built commercial models around football and its subscriptions, but it’s difficult to see them paying more than the £10m per game they shell out now. On top of that, with the increase in unavoidable and unstoppable piracy, there is a reduction in UK subscriber numbers.
The overseas market may well be the promised land, though.
The Big Six want the overseas money to be distributed on a merit basis — the higher up the league you get, the bigger your share. Well, of course, that has to be right. After all, they don’t already get more money for being there… oh wait, they do! They get Champions League revenues, merit payments from the Premier League, Europa League payments. But come on, they’re the Big Six.
The concession from the Premier League is to carve out £1bn as merit payments for the clubs who finish in the top six of the table. To do this they require 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs to vote for it. West Ham and Leicester have wilted already and voted in favour, but I note my old club Crystal Palace voted against.
Executive chairman Richard Scudamore has, at times, done wonders to hold together the Premier League. But that doesn’t mean he should be offering concessions — it will only be the beginning. It undermines the fabric of English football and increases the possibility of a European Super League.
Bluntly speaking, the Big Six should be careful what they wish for. They may just be overshadowed in stature and presence by Real, Barca and Bayern when it comes to who’s worth what.
Premier League TV revenues are smaller than the X-Men movie franchise, which shows football has only just scratched the surface. The Premier League could — and should — become the Netflix of football.
I’m not saying they should forget their current broadcast partners, but run alongside them, whether that’s being a platform themselves or using distribution networks like Amazon. This will make current deals look small beer and could, like Netflix, easily get 100million worldwide subscribers paying, say, £7 a month. That’s £26bn every three years.
This is what Scudamore and the Premier League should be aiming for and not allowing the shorttermism and greed of the Big Six to undermine the bigger picture.
The Premier League must keep its uniqueness and quality because the real money may not yet have even arrived.
The Premier League must fight this greed ... it will only be the beginning