Missing out on TV millions

Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date published: 11 March 2015


IN A PARALLEL universe, Athletic could be benefitting from a television cash windfall of nearly £14 million as a result of the Premier League’s lucrative television deal.

Former chairman Ken Bates says the handing over of exclusive rights for the Football League to ITV Digital in 2001, without a parent company guarantee, was a disastrous move in comparison to another on the table.

The contract was for a three-year agreement worth £315million — a figure many experts felt was vastly overinflated. The company collapsed and clubs, including Athletic, suffered the financial consequences.

At the time the fateful deal was struck, Bates claims the Premier League had put forward an alternative deal to sell rights to the domestic game wholesale, giving Football League clubs a 20-per-cent slice of the overall pie.

Translating that to the record £5billion windfall agreed by the Premier League recently for domestic TV rights, it works out as each of the 72 Football League clubs picking up £14million — the equivalent for Athletic of two new stands, with cash left over.

“It came down to the incompetence of the Football League,” Bates said. “When Dave Richards was at the Premier League, he was prepared to sell the whole of the UK television rights and give the Football League 20 per cent of what they took.

“It was all agreed, then the Football League’s management committee went and did a deal with ITV Digital. But they didn’t get a parent company to guarantee it, and the collapse left a lot of clubs in serious financial trouble. Imagine now what £1billion could do for clubs in the Football League.”