Sky gear up for bid to regain CL rights
SKY SPORTS’ purchase of the new Nations League rights from UEFA is seen as a strong sign that they plan to bid to regain the Champions League next year.
Relationships between UEFA and Sky hit rock bottom after the Champions League was snatched away from them by BT in 2015 for the small matter of £897million. Sky Sports supremo Barney Francis famously claimed that their subscription rivals had wildly overspent and that the Premier League was far more popular with Sky viewers.
BT retained the rights until 2021 at the last auction in 2017, paying £1.18billion over three years. But there are big doubts whether BT, who have made huge job cuts this year and face pressure from shareholders over massive spending on sports rights, will be prepared to invest another billion-plus when the next three-year CL tender comes around in 2019.
And Sky are now on much better terms with UEFA, having bought all the home nations’ matches in the Nations League, which were sold centrally by the European football ruling body rather than by the individual associations.
Sky will be putting their A team on Nations League duty, with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher plus newcomer Jermain Defoe involved in Saturday’s coverage of England’s opening game against Spain at Wembley
Meanwhile, ITV Sport are desperately in need of some live football. Sky’s Nations League deal, which includes the two England friendlies this autumn against the USA and Switzerland, means ITV have no live football until England’s 2020 European Championship qualifiers start next March.
•EUROPEAN Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn will follow the example of England football manager Gareth Southgate at the World Cup with a ‘one team’ philosophy — uniting players, backroom staff, caddies and WAGS for the Ryder Cup. But asked whether Southgate’s success bonding everyone together in Russia had influenced him, Bjorn quipped: ‘I think Southgate learned it from me.’ THOMAS BJORN made 10 phone calls before announcing his Ryder Cup wildcards yesterday.
He spoke to the four picks, plus six players who missed out — which was in contrast to his own treatment before the 2006 Cup at the K Club.
The Dane found out that captain Ian Woosnam hadn’t selected him via the television.
Bjorn later called Woosnam (above) ‘the most pathetic captain I have ever seen, barmy and not burdened with too many leadership qualities’. Bjorn said yesterday: ‘I don’t know how it is to get a phone call.’
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charity blue day at the Oval during the fifth Test — comparable to Sydney’s pink day in honour of Jane McGrath’s cancer treatment foundation — will not run this year. Cricket United, which ran for five years and raised nearly £100,000 last year, was a joint venture between the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s benevolent fund and the Lord’s Taverners and Chance to Shine cricket charity fund-raisers. A spokesman for the troubled PCA, who have had a year of internal strife, said: ‘All three charities decided not to go ahead this year. The event needs a lot of manpower and promotion.’