The £900m TV problem that Klopp refuses to see

Here is the problem. It is called Package A. And it is worth £900million. That was the price, ball park, paid by BT Sport in the last domestic rights negotiations for 32 Premier League games each season, kicking off at 12.30pm on a Saturday.

It was a hard-fought bidding war with Sky and the contract runs until the end of the 2021-22 campaign. And, no, Covid-19 and a truncated season were not envisaged when pen went to paper. But that doesn’t make the contract invalid.

All clubs agreed to the sale — even those, like Liverpool, who may have suspected they would have Wednesday night commitments in europe. So while much of what Jurgen Klopp said about kick- off times makes perfect sense, one question has not been answered. Where’s the money? For if BT Sport are to sacrifice Package A for the remainder of the 2020-21 season — broadcast rights which they bought in good faith — it would appear they are owed roughly £300m.

Split 20 ways, that’s £ 15m per club, always providing the broadcasters don’t consider it a contractual breach and sue for a rebate on next year as well. In which case, double it.

Yet managers never talk about this rather significant complication. Klopp spoke after the win over Leicester as if this was television’s decision to make. It isn’t. It’s football’s. They sell these packages, seven of them, and invite tenders. Highest wins. And the guys at the very top of the game — the owners, not the employees — cannot believe the revenue football is generating.

That’s why they’re here. You don’t notice American venture

capitalists, Russian oligarchs and sovereign wealth funds hanging around other sports, do you? they follow the money.

And English football money is off the charts. Why? Because someone pays £900m, just for Package A.

so while it is very possible to have sympathy for Klopp (below) because he is at the sharp end of serious injuries and aching legs, it is not merely — as he puts it — ‘a decision on a desk in an office’ to apply change.

that’s a glib interpretation of what is financing his industry. if he wants the broadcasters to understand a coach’s predicament, coaches need to understand theirs.

As it stands, football has sold television a product and that product is no longer working satisfactorily for football — so football expects television to come up with a solution.

sorry, but that’s not how it works.

‘if you don’t start talking to Bt then we’re all done,’ Klopp told sky reporter Geoff shreeves. ‘sky and Bt have to talk.’ Actually, they’re rivals. they negotiate on picks because they have to, but sky are not in the business of easing Bt sport’s pain, and vice versa. the company that Bt sport outbid for Package A was almost certainly sky. it was sky’s interest that would have pushed the selling price to £ 9.375m per match. think about that. to move just one fixture — say Brighton v Liverpool this weekend — could cost close on £10m in rebates. And that’s Liverpool’s bill, surely, because it’s not Brighton who are objecting. Yes, compromises could have been made with foresight. Excluding clubs with European fixtures on Wednesday from Package A kick- offs could be a straightforward one. Yet the right time to do that would have been in 2018 when the deal was struck, but the clubs did not push for it. Why? Because it wouldn’t be worth £900m.

Any club in Europa League action is already excluded, because they play thursday. Remove two of the four Champions League teams, too, and that wipes out the bulk of the interesting fixtures.

TAKE this weekend. Out of Package A contention would be Brighton v Liverpool, Manchester City v Burnley, Chelsea v tottenham and Arsenal v Wolves. in other words, five of the big six.

the previous UEFA match week, such an arrangement would have ruled out half the programme including the games involving Manchester United, Chelsea, tottenham and Arsenal.

there would have been one spicy fixture, Manchester City v Liverpool, but that would be bagged for sunday afternoon. so the 12.30 saturday options would have been — Brighton v Burnley, southampton v Newcastle,

Crystal Palace v Leeds and West ham v Fulham. some reasonable games in an open season, but who’s paying £900m?

Equally, tV people know their audiences. A marquee match at a less attractive kick-off time would also affect the selling price.

Klopp’s points are valid. Covid has complicated the world. Yet, for an intelligent man, it is disingenuous not to acknowledge football’s half of the bargain.

‘if someone tells me again about contracts, i’ll go really nuts,’ he told shreeves, ‘ because these contracts aren’t made for a Covid season. We all have to adapt. Everything’s changed but the contract with the broadcasters is still, “We have this, so we keep this”. What? Everything changed, the whole world changed.’

indeed it did. Except the £900m. No mention of that changing, so one presumes football still expects and needs Bt sport to pay the full amount for Package A. Maybe that’s why it’s a broadcaster problem.

how to continue banking their money without delivering the product. that would be a problem for anybody.