KING: ACCEPT YOUR VALUE
bumper TV deal. Top-flight clubs are preparing to vote through a fresh broadcasting agreement with Sky that will see the current £25million-a-year package boosted to £29.5m per season.
But the proposals – which could eventually be worth £37m by the end of the agreement in 2029 – remain well short of the vast sums raked in by leagues of comparable size to the Premiership.
Norways’s top flight has a deal worth £64m a year and Holland’s Eredivisie rights generate £67m for Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV and the rest of the Dutch top division.
Current Rangers chief exec Stewart Robertson has long complained that the SPFL TV package is undersold and the Ibrox outfit were among a group of Premiership clubs who commissioned a recent report by Deloitte, which sets out a plan to increase the league’s income past £50m by 2030.
But former Ibrox chairman King, who stepped down in March 2020, reckons SPFL chiefs missed their chance to maximise profits while Scottish football had Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers.
He said: “Scottish football is valued at what it’s valued. You argue whether it should be £27m or £35m.
“But Scottish football is valued based on the appetite for Scottish football. If people thought it was worth more, they would pay more.
“There’s no doubt that Rangers’ progress over the last few years, with Steven coming to Glasgow and making a big difference, has increased the profile of Scottish football and it’s worth some more money.
“But there’s a limit to how much Scottish football is going to generate. It’s something we’re just going to have to accept.”
And King accused SPFL chiefs of shooting themselves in the foot over their reluctance to work with Rangers after luring Gerrard to Glasgow in 2018.
He said: ”When Steven came in, these were decisions that were being made by Scottish football. It wasn’t just Rangers.
“Rangers, from our point of view, were trying to maximise the benefit of Steven and we did that fairly successfully because Steven was a big brand in how own right.
“Scottish football wasn’t necessarily very Rangersfriendly at that time.
“But if Rangers came up with an idea that made sense for Scottish football, that was probably a reason to reject it by the hierarchy.
“They were certainly far from being Rangersfriendly and there were instances where Scottish football worked against its own interests in an attempt to put Rangers down. We made efforts to recover that position.
“But it wasn’t easy. Progress was made but unfortunately that cinch debacle probably set the club back again. Rangers are going to have to recover a little bit in terms of its own prestige and image because of that.”
SPFL chiefs were forced to redraw an agreement with sponsors cinch, excluding Rangers, after a bitter fall-out.
The new wording means Gers are released from requirements to display cinch branding on their kit and around Ibrox.
King said: “It was blown out of proportion. I don’t think it was good for Rangers and it wasn’t good for Scottish football.”