Liverpool are seeking a restructuring of the Premier League’s overseas television deal that would allow each club to negotiate their own contract. It’s the end of the world.
Manchester United, Chelsea Don’t Endorse Liverpool TV Rights Breakaway Plan
A Chelsea spokesperson had this to say about the proposal:
While Manchester United chairman David Gill chimed in with some thoughts of his own:
Read Article >Liverpool: Money Swallows The Universe
Luis Suarez of Liverpool reacts to a missed chance during the Barclays Premier League match between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park. It’s fair to assume that Ian Ayre, managing director of Liverpool, is a reasonably intelligent man. He has, after all, risen to a position of some cachet in the strange and cloistered world of football administration. So let’s presume that he’s aware that the phrase “With the greatest of respect” is - like its counterparts in euphemism “I’m not a racist, but ...” and “Fair and Balanced” - a cipher. In fact, even calling it a cipher is euphemistic. It’s a lie: an unsubtle wink to the listener that can be accurately glossed as “With so much contempt that even the language of Shakespeare lacks sufficient scope of expression”.
Note that Ayre’s argument - and, for all that he insists “this is a debate we should be having”, you can rest assured that he knows what he wants the answer to be - is, like all base political mendacities, lent urgency by apocalyptic warnings. He says that the present deal, as it stands, means that the big clubs are “disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs”, which is a touch comical coming from a man working for a team not competing in Europe this season. Perhaps he means Stoke. But he also proffers the more vague horror: “will the Premier League bubble burst?”
Read Article >Liverpool Demand Change In Television Deal; Want To Make It Less Fair, More Evil
In this handout image supplied by Liverpool FC, Ian Ayre commercial director, Kenny Dalglish manager of Liverpool and Damien Comolli director of football attend a press conference as Kenny Dalglish signs a new three year deal with Liverpool FC. Yeah, there isn’t a much better way of putting this...
Right. You all may have noticed that La Liga clubs that aren’t Real Madrid and Barcelona went on strike over this sort of thing last month, because they consider team-by-team negotiations (correctly) massively unfair. And it turns out that no matter how special your team is, it needs an opponent. If Liverpool are successful - they they could well be - this won’t kill league parity (league parity is something of a joke in the Premier League). What it will do is completely screw about half of the teams in the league.
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