Sky could pull plug on our game

LIONEL MESSI and Luis Suarez, it turns out, are not the greatest cause of concern to Scottish football to emerge from Barcelona this week.

As much of a handful as they will be for Celtic in the Champions League at Parkhead on Wednesday, it is the words of Sky’s chief executive Jeremy Darroch from a Morgan Stanley investor conference in the Catalan city that will lead to some squirming in seats until the dust settles and the picture becomes clearer.

Darroch has stated that the broadcaster is about to reduce its focus on sporting coverage to embark upon a new strategy of prioritising the most important events and letting others go in order to put more money into entertainment.

In other words, they have Netflix and the like to worry about. At present, Sky has agreements with the SFA and the SPFL. It does not seem beyond the realms of possibility, given what is being said, that one or both of these could bite the dust.

A huge rise in rights costs for the English Premier League has been followed by a marked drop in viewing figures.

Sky are hardly likely to ditch their flagship product until this trend becomes truly entrenched, though, and that means other niche interests will almost certainly be sacrificed.

Scottish football sold its soul to the TV companies several times over and still failed to finish up with the right deal.

If the money currently being brought in starts disappearing, the prospect of your club’s matches going back to a 3pm kick-off on a Saturday will be scant consolation.