Scudamore caught in middle of £1bn scrap
PREMIER LEAGUE executive chairman Richard Scudamore is in serious danger of upsetting both sides of the top flight’s £1billion conflict.
His proposal would see 35 per cent of the overseas TV money from the next three-year contract being allocated by league position, rather than being shared equally among the 20 clubs.
Scudamore needs to persuade another five clubs to switch their support in time for the expected vote at the PL summit next Wednesday. Currently his proposal is backed by the big six plus Leicester, West Ham and Everton.
A 14-6 majority is necessary for a rules change, but most of the 11 opponents are entrenched in their position. In addition, they are annoyed that Scudamore dominated their meeting this week, when the intention had been to debate the issue without him being there. They also wanted more than one option on the table.
Scudamore is concerned about going into the TV auction without the full support of the big six, and fears they may appeal to regulator Ofcom to sell their own foreign highlights. But the 11 dissenting clubs do not believe these are big enough reasons for such a seismic change.
BEN STOKES’S late-night Bristol brawl is now such a serious issue for the talisman cricketer, Team England and the England Cricket Board that three sets of lawyers, acting for the different interests are now involved in the fall-out. Hampshire batsman James Vince (right), the most contentious choice for the Ashes squad, happens to be one of Stokes’s best friends in cricket.
THE way the Fa are trying to offload ‘historic’ blame for the Mark Sampson fiasco has infuriated former Fa employees. Sampson remained England women coach despite a safeguarding report of his relationship with a Bristol academy player.
It was claimed by the Fa that former HR boss Mel Millner, now at aston Villa, was alerted to the details of Sampson’s time in Bristol by head of safeguarding Sue Ravenlaw.
Yet it emerges that Darren Bailey, former head of governance, was on Ravenlaw’s chain of command, and that Millner had scant knowledge of the Sampson files from start to finish.
MCC want to close the door on the two-decade long conflict around building residential flats at the Nursery End of Lord’s, following the landslide members vote rejecting the £150million offer. But property developer Charles Rifkind has no intention of walking away and is pondering his next move. He is insistent MCC do not, as they claim, have the money to complete the re-building themselves. Rifkind believes they will have to come back to him eventually, plus he owns the lease for the Nursery End tunnels and various properties crucial for redevelopment at the Pavilion end. Rifkind added he was looking forward to meeting new MCC chief executive Guy Lavender and president Lord MacLaurin and receiving a better hearing. MCC say Lavender has been given the clearest of mandates to move on.