Premier League faces revolt over pay-per-view plans

THE Premier League was facing another major revolt from supporters after it was decided they should be charged almost £15 to watch matches it had previously given away.

The world’s richest league confirmed half of games for the rest of this month and the start of next would be sold on a pay-per-view basis in an attempt to claw back some of the millions its clubs are losing from playing behind closed doors.

Fans in the UK will have to pay £14.95 on Sky Sports and BT Sport’s ‘Box Office’ channels – it is understood viewers in Ireland will be charged a price of €16.95.

Clubs are under severe pressure to scrap the plan before the first pay-per-view games next weekend – which includes Manchester United’s trip to Newcastle United – in the same way they reversed their decision to block fans watching 160 matches at all this season.

That U-turn had seen teams agree to continue giving away those games not already contracted to Sky and BT to all its UK broadcast partners, including the BBC and Amazon, which it had done since football resumed following the coronavirus crisis.

But clubs have decided to end the giveaway and begin charging for the additional matches – initially until the start of next month. The decision to make fans pay for something previously included as part of their TV subscriptions and licence fee provoked outrage on social media, including from Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, who posted on Twitter.

Neville also retweeted a post pointing out the 20 Premier League clubs had spent £1.2 billion between them in the transfer window.

The move also meant fans of some clubs being charged more than others with all of Aston Villa, Fulham and West Brom’s next three matches now pay-per-view and none of Everton, Man City or West Ham’s.

Manchester United chief executive Ed Woodward had proposed that season-ticket holders be given free passes but that failed to find favour, with the majority of clubs believing it would be logistically more difficult than refunding those fans and allowing them to decide how to spend that money.

As well as United’s trip to Newcastle, which will kick-off at 8pm next Saturday, Sky Sports Box Office will show Leicester v Aston Villa and West Brom v Burnley, which were moved to 7.15pm on the Sunday and 5.30pm on the Monday, respectively. BT Sport Box Office will show Chelsea v Southampton and Sheffield United v Fulham (kick-offs TBC). (© Daily Telegraph, London)