by Seal »
12 Oct 2011 20:48
Whilst one can never say never when it comes to football, this is a long way off being a reality. You should bear in mind this is one (American) owner just throwing out an idea just to see who bites (much like TMD's posting strategy).
As it happens I was at the Emirates today for the LMA conference, and what a number of club execs and managers were talking about is the "Man United gap" in reference to the revenue they achieve versus the rest. Liverpool are hamstrung by an inadequate stadium, so tv rights is one way they feel they can get a competitive advantage against the rest and compete with United.
However, despite the commercial benefits this would offer some clubs, most realise the Premiership as an offering is greater than the sum of its parts, therefore it would never get voted through. The only way it could happen is with a breakaway league (i.e. Super league as discussed). However that will require a huge amount of cooperation between clubs from many different leagues so is a long way off and UEFA with Platini at the helm would be massively opposed.
A compromise may be reached where clubs are given licence to sell certain rights (e.g. Online) separately to live away games or something of that sort (on a specific territory basis), but that will be all that I can envisage changing in the short term.
Long term (10 years +) who knows? Did anyone see the Premier League and it's success coming when English football was in the doldrums in the 80s?