(WFI) Manchester United chief executive David Gill reaffirms his support for the English Premier League's collective bargaining for TV rights, saying he can never see a time when English clubs will negotiate their own television deals.
Speaking on the last leg of the club’s Asian tour, Gill dismissed suggestions that United would follow the lead of Scotland’s Celtic and Rangers, who earlier this month failed in an attempt to sell their TV rights individually.
“Collective selling is a strength of the Premier League,” he said “Sky have been a great partner for the Premier League. They package it well and sell it well. That experience has been very positive. ESPN are now involved, which is positive, and the rights have been sold until 2014.”
Elsewhere in Europe, notably in Spain and Italy, clubs negotiate TV deals individually. Such systems overwhelmingly favor the likes of Real Madrid, which commands around $165 million annually from domestic TV rights alone, while smaller clubs get a fraction of that amount.
Arguably United could substantially boost their TV revenues by seeking to opt out of the EPL’s collective bargaining system, but Gill said he was “content” with the current deal, which is supplemented by earnings from United’s in-house TV channel MUTV.
“MUTV is a successful in-house TV channel that makes money,” he said.
“Depending on the time of year, you can have anything between 80 and 100,000 subscribers and it sells to many countries overseas through TWI, whose rights are up next summer.
“It will never get huge numbers of people without the rights and we will never have them.
“What we have done are little things like pulling the advertising slots back so we can offer to our partners.
“It is not going to help buy a star player but it is a very important part of our future and I am content with where it is.”
Blatter Rules out Salary Cap, Calls for “Financial Fair Play”
FIFA President Sepp Blatter has once more ruled out a salary cap as a way to reduce the disparities between football’s leading clubs.
“We cannot cap the salaries,” he said while on a four-day visit to the U.S. “This is impossible, especially in the European Union, where any economic intervention would be just waved away by any court. What we are asking for is a little bit of financial fair play.”
Earlier this month, Pele urged FIFA to introduce a players’ salary cap and warned that the vast sums of money at the game’s top level threatened its image for future generations. Other leading figures to voice their support for a salary cap include Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis and Lazio president Claudio Lotito.
Blatter, however, has consistently resisted such calls. In 2002 he said “football should not intervene with economics” and in 2007 described a salary cap as “erroneous”.
But on his U.S. visit Blatter also spoke of the “danger” of football’s growing inequality gap.
He admitted that investment is “good for football” if people “do it in the right way,” but acknowledged that it may lead to greater inequality.
“The rich are becoming richer,” he said. “Those that have less, they are not poorer, but the gap is growing and this is a danger.”
Last month, Blatter defended Real Madrid’s world record signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. But his latest comments signal an apparent volte-face and hint at a growing unease at the vast spending sprees undertaken this summer by Real Madrid and Manchester City, which are respectively backed by soft bank loans and petro-dollars.
Ukraine Seeks Infrastructure Boost with Tax Breaks as Platini Backs Poland
Ukraine has sought to bolster its troubled preparations for the 2012 European Championships by offering tax breaks aimed at stimulating its construction trade. Donetsk, which is still at least 800 hotel suites short of its designated target, has offered a five year break on local taxes to enterprises that can guarantee hotel construction by 2012.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (second right) says the government has broken promises on financing the Euro 2012 finals (Getty Images)In May a UEFA inspection team refused to approve Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv as finals venues, citing major infrastructure shortcomings in these cities. Although the 50,000 capacity Donbass Arena is due to open in Donetsk next month, there have been few other signs of progress since May as Ukraine is gripped by political and economic turmoil.
In an extraordinary attempt to salvage Ukraine’s reputation, on Friday the mayors of Ukraine’s four host cities urged “all political forces” to declare “taboo” critical statements on the country’s preparations for Euro 2012. The call for censorship seemingly harked back to the Ukraine’s pre-Orange revolution era.
“We call on all political forces and movements, public organizations and their leaders to declare a taboo any unconsidered statements on holding the Euro 2012 matches in Ukraine and hope for discreet behavior and objective comments only,” said a statement signed by the mayors of Donetsk, Lviv, Kharkiv and the first vice mayor of Kyiv in Kharkiv.
Earlier this month, President Viktor Yushchenko accused the Ukraine government of breaking promises on financing the Euro 2012 finals.
UEFA President Michel Platini, on a two-day visit to Poland, confirmed on Monday that the final decision concerning Euro 2012 host cities will be taken in December.
During his tour of the western city of Poznan, Platini said the decision was conditional on the three remaining Ukrainian cities meeting UEFA’s approval. “These cities have five more months to work on their progress,” he told Polish state radio.
Platini spoke glowingly of Poland’s preparations saying he had “total trust” in whatever the Polish organizing committee had shown him. “What’s more, what we are seeing now looks good,” he said, adding that Gdansk’s Baltic Arena was “amazing”.
As well as inspecting the construction of stadia, Platini met with mayors of the relevant cities and also had lunch with Poland's former president Lech Walesa in Gdansk.
Briefs
… Mexico routed the USA 5-0 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in New Jersey. The victory against an inexperienced U.S. team was Mexico’s first over their rivals on American soil in a decade and the heaviest defeat suffered by the U.S. in a quarter century.
… Los Angeles Galaxy and England star David Beckham has been named an ambassador for International Inspiration, the London 2012 Olympics legacy program for children and young people. He joins cyclist Chris Hoy, Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson and retired athletes Colin Jackson and Denise Lewis as ambassadors.
“My involvement, both when London won the bid in Singapore in 2005 and at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics made me realize the power of the Olympic Games,” Beckham said in a statement. “Sport is a language that everyone speaks, and it can be used to change lives.”
The scheme was set up to deliver on a promise by the London 2012 bid team to connect children with the “inspirational power” of the Olympics.
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