• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

'Big Story'

Status
Not open for further replies.

Vanbasten84

Active
Member
#LFC fans might be getting slight over-excited by 'big story' appearing on Guardian website at 10.30pm. Significant but not earth-shattering

Tweet from Guardian journalist Sachin Nakrani

??? ??? ???
 
Charles Itandje will return from a 4 year long loan, now he has only 6 years left on his contract.
 
[quote author=Ossi link=topic=47157.msg1411116#msg1411116 date=1318368009]
Charles Itandje will return from a 4 year long loan, now he has only 6 years left on his contract.
[/quote]

haha fucking hell !
 
[quote author=Skullflower link=topic=47157.msg1411119#msg1411119 date=1318368108]
it's about us wanting to negotiate our own tv rights.
[/quote]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/oct/11/liverpool-breakaway-tv-deal

The deal that shares television's billions equally between Premier League clubs is facing its biggest threat to date after Liverpool announced they would lead a challenge for overseas TV rights to be sold on a club-by-club basis.

Liverpool's managing director, Ian Ayre, has insisted the break-up of the established broadcasting deal, worth £3.2bn in total to all Premier League clubs for 2010?13, is "a debate that has to happen", with the Anfield club in favour of the Spanish model that allows Barcelona and Real Madrid to negotiate individual contracts that dwarf their domestic and European rivals.

Since the Premier League's foundation in 1992 its success has been largely based on the principle of collective selling, where each club no matter how lowly can expect a fixed share of TV deals with "merit" awards for finishing positions as an add?on. Changing this model would risk revolt from the smaller clubs who stand to lose most, and thus threatens the league's very structure.

At present, the Premier League sells domestic and overseas broadcasting rights collectively and more than doubled international revenue in its last negotiations, from £625m for 2007?10 to £1.4bn for 2010?13. With the Premier League shown in 212 countries and having 98 broadcast partners around the world, it is expected the next deal will show a similar increase, with overseas rights potentially worth more than domestic for the first time.

Ayre believes the Premier League's four biggest global draws – Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal – deserve an increased share from 2013, with overseas broadcasting having a greater influence on the Anfield club's financial future than a new stadium. "Personally I think the game-changer is going out and recognising our brand globally," said the Liverpool managing director. "Maybe the path will be individual TV rights like they do in Spain. There are so many things moving in that particular area.

"What is absolutely certain is that, with the greatest of respect to our colleagues in the Premier League, but if you're a Bolton fan in Bolton, then you subscribe to Sky because you want to watch Bolton. Everyone gets that. Likewise, if you're a Liverpool fan from Liverpool, you subscribe. But if you're in Kuala Lumpur there isn't anyone subscribing to Astro, or ESPN to watch Bolton, or if they are it's a very small number. Whereas the large majority are subscribing because they want to watch Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal.

"So is it right that the international rights are shared equally between all the clubs? Some people will say: 'Well you've got to all be in it to make it happen.' But isn't it really about where the revenue is coming from, which is the broadcaster, and isn't it really about who people want to watch on that channel? We know it is us. And others. At some point we definitely feel there has to be some rebalance on that, because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs."

It would require 14 of the Premier League's 20 members to vote in favour of a new commercial arrangement. Though Sir Alex Ferguson recently described the collective deal as "fair", albeit while insisting clubs deserved more from overseas rights, and La Liga's system has attracted widespread criticism, Ayre believes the status quo jeopardises the financial might of the Premier League.

"If Real Madrid or Barcelona or other big European clubs have the opportunity to truly realise their international media value potential, where does that leave Liverpool and Manchester United? We'll just share ours because we'll all be nice to each other? The whole phenomenon of the Premier League could be threatened. If they just get bigger and bigger and they generate more and more, then all the players will start drifting that way and will the Premier League bubble burst because we are sticking to this equal-sharing model? It's a real debate that has to happen."

Liverpool insist their radical proposals are limited to overseas broadcasting, although success on that front could set a precedent domestically in the long term, and the club plans to raise the issue at the next Premier League meeting. Ayre's frank admission comes almost one year on from Fenway Sports Group acquiring the club from Tom Hicks and George Gillett in the high court and, along with broadcasting revenue, another major financial decision to be resolved by the American owners remains whether to construct a new stadium or redevelop their current home, Anfield.

Liverpool's managing director insists the club are pursuing "a parallel course" on both options, with planning regulations complicating the redevelopment of Anfield and the financial benefits of a new-build uncertain, although Ayre admits the latter option is only viable with a naming rights deal. "We have been in discussions here and in other parts of the world with a small group of people that we have narrowed down that we are targeting for naming rights. That is an absolute catalyst to building a new stadium. The economics just don't stack up without it.

"When will the decision be made? It'll only be when we reach an answer with both. It's hard to put a time on it. If you put a deadline on the naming rights, then you start to marginalise the deal. We aren't desperate. We think we have an amazing proposition as one of the biggest clubs in the world. I don't recall any football club of this size with this international reach that's ever done a naming rights deal. It is quite unique in that sense. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United haven't. Nobody in football has done this at this level. It's new ground and it will take what it takes."

Ayre, along with the former Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton, ex-chief executive Christian Purslow and Fenway Sports Group, remains the subject of a £1bn lawsuit filed by Hicks and Gillett over the events surrounding their departure last October. "It's an unwanted and unwelcome distraction. That's their prerogative but we remain extremely confident that we did the right thing," he said. The Liverpool MD offered his resignation to John W Henry following FSG's victory in the high court, and admits the five-times European champions could have entered administration had Hicks and Gillett retained control.

"Certainly the bank had the power to call in the debt and at the time there wasn't anyone ready to take on that debt. So I guess the answer to that [would Liverpool have gone into administration] is yes. It's hypothetical but based on where we were and based on the circumstances at the time that was a very real threat. That was the case in the final hours. That was one of the other routes we could have gone down."
 
[quote author=Ossi link=topic=47157.msg1411116#msg1411116 date=1318368009]
Charles Itandje will return from a 4 year long loan, now he has only 6 years left on his contract.
[/quote]

Hahaha. We have a winner.
 
Joy. Our club now not only epitomises most things I hate in the modern day game, they're actually trying to lead it more into the hell I've prayed football wouldn't become.

FUCK.

I honestly think within a couple of years I'll be watching AFC Liverpool.
 
[quote author=FoxForceFive link=topic=47157.msg1411123#msg1411123 date=1318369188]
Joy. Our club now not only epitomises most things I hate in the modern day game, they're actually trying to lead it more into the hell I've prayed football wouldn't become.

FUCK.

I honestly think within a couple of years I'll be watching AFC Liverpool.
[/quote]

Too true, I made the second paragraph. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't enjoy that more anyway, money is ruining the enjoyment.
 
This was the only reason that I thought so many Yanks were interested in football clubs. The Red Sox make ridiculous money from their TV network, I'd imagine FSG will be looking to do the same here.

Kroenke's moves early on signalled he was interested in a similar strategy, I remember reading a good article in the Guardian about it
 
I don't really know enough on the matter, only the consequences of a similar structure in Spain - which I think is terrible - can anybody more well versed in this area give their opinion as to how likely this is to go through and how beneficial to us it would be if it did? Ross maybe?
 
[quote author=Halmeister link=topic=47157.msg1411129#msg1411129 date=1318369613]
I don't really know enough on the matter, only the consequences of a similar structure in Spain - which I think is terrible - can anybody more well versed in this area give their opinion as to how likely this is to go through and how beneficial to us it would be if it did? Ross maybe?
[/quote]

No idea to be honest.

But yeah it's part of the reason the Spanish league is so uncompetitive. I presume we'd do pretty well out of it given the global fanbase, and clearly FSG think we will or they wouldn't be making noises about it.

I'm with FFF though - football is becoming shit
 
I don't think it's likely. 14 out of 20 clubs have to vote yes.

For 8 clubs, maybe 9, that's like turkeys voting for Christmas.

It would be extremely beneficial for us in the short to medium term, long term it would kill the game & make it a 3/4 horse race every year with a 10-12 point gap between 4th & 5th eveyr season & no grass roots in the longer term.
 
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=47157.msg1411131#msg1411131 date=1318369889]
[quote author=Halmeister link=topic=47157.msg1411129#msg1411129 date=1318369613]
I don't really know enough on the matter, only the consequences of a similar structure in Spain - which I think is terrible - can anybody more well versed in this area give their opinion as to how likely this is to go through and how beneficial to us it would be if it did? Ross maybe?
[/quote]

No idea to be honest.

But yeah it's part of the reason the Spanish league is so uncompetitive. I presume we'd do pretty well out of it given the global fanbase, and clearly FSG think we will or they wouldn't be making noises about it.

I'm with FFF though - football is becoming shit
[/quote]

If we setup an AFC Liverpool fan site we'd have to be the biggest (only?) fan site, surely?!
😉
 
I think he'll get his way in the end. He's only got to go to some European court and point to Spain and Italy and say that we're in a corrupt cabal and that it isn't fair.

Anyways, we all knew it would happen. Even you who said that he was here for the love of it must have really known he's just a money grubbing cunt.
 
[quote author=Woland link=topic=47157.msg1411137#msg1411137 date=1318370223]
I think he'll get his way in the end. He's only got to go to some European court and point to Spain and Italy and say that we're in a corrupt cabal and that it isn't fair.

Anyways, we all knew it would happen. Even you who said that he was here for the love of it must have really known he's just a money grubbing cunt.
[/quote]

Me ?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom