Congratulations to SPL chief executive, Neil Doncaster, who delivered a remarkable increase in the league’s TV deal with Sky and ESPN; £80m for five years until 2017. The one concession he had to trade, was the possibility that he had to subjugate the link between sporting meritocracy and the commercial imperative.
When news of the deal broke yesterday a Rangers fan was quick to suggest that Sky and ESPN would not have bid on such terms if they had any doubt Rangers would survive in the league, however, later details emerged to prove the exact opposite. The entire deal is dependent on a clause assuring Celtic play Rangers four times each season. If Rangers were eliminated from the league, or even if they failed to earn enough points after an administration penalty to finish in the top six after 33 games, the TV deal becomes invalid.
While this clause was crucial in Doncaster getting his deal it does nothing for the sporting integrity of the competition. It has been five years since Rangers finished outside the top two in the league but if they go into administration, or worse, a fire sale of assets and a point deduction is likely.
The league has now introduced a contractual ceiling on whatever penalty would be applied to a financially deviant club, irrespective of the offense. Doncaster will now also set off to find a sponsor to replace Clydesdale Bank, promising the TV exposure his deal with Sky and ESPN provides. By extension, not only will TV income be dependent on four Celtic-Rangers games per season, so too will league sponsorship income.
Can you imagine the goings-on if Rangers enter next season in administration, with a 10-point deduction and a skeleton squad? Beating Rangers, making it less likely for them to reach the top six, could cost each team in the league millions. Clubs have a clear incentive to ensure Rangers are in no danger of finishing outside the top six.
Neil Doncaster, who is likely to be financially incentivised to deliver TV money, is a member of the SPL board who would decide whether or not to admit a prepack company into the league in the event of an existing club failure. His partiality would be compromised by this deal, so too would other board members from clubs without the liquidity to cope without TV or sponsor income.
While TV broadcasters have a clear financial incentive to lobby for whatever it takes to keep Rangers buoyant, the financial incentives will touch everyone with their snout in the trough, and that includes non-TV media and referees.
This is a dreadful deal as it inserts a clause which compromises the sporting integrity of the competition. Can you imagine giving the team talk to a club, safe from relegation, about to face a Rangers team needing a win on game 33? What about the referee who makes a mistake in Rangers favour, late in the season, under similar circumstances? How would Sky, ESPN and others frame the debate in the event of Rangers going into administration?
I can understand why Sky and ESPN want clause, but the rest of us might as well chuck it.
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Paul67,
I just hope that you’ve got this wrong. If you’re right then we only have 2 options:
1. Remove ourselves from the league:
2. Fight the the deal and its implications in the courts.
Árd Macha
ever felt as though you have just been bent over…
hate ‘ley was on talksport yesterday having the timerity to suggest
marseille cheated them in the champions league all they years ago
due to financial shenanigans…oh the irony. well it would be if that
bunch of low life scum had any integrity and dignity.
Memorable quotes
“I’ve six cans of beer in the fridge, and they’ve got my name on them”
Sir Alec Guinness
bournesouprecipe says:
22 November, 2011 at 10:32
The game’s a bogey
This ^^^^^^^^^^^
Bent decisions, hostile SFA, risk of criminalisation, game’s a bogey – what’s the point?
cavansam \o/ says:
22 November, 2011 at 10:26
I would not be at all surprised. It does seem like an aweful lot of things are going against us at the minute and I have no doubt that these orcharstrtated attacks are a smoke screen to deflect from the massive problems at ibrox. I want to see our major shareholder get off the golf course and explain to the Celtic support why he has not backed the manager, he could easily give us a soft loan for a Chris Sutton / John Hartson style striker and Chris Sutton style centre back at least until the end of the season. If we get a champions league spot he gets his money back and ibrox becomes flats, or maybe he is playing the ‘old firm’ game as well.
What next for the Green Brigade….
maybe the Celtic support at large will now realise that, our real foe’s are to be found in the board room at CP and, sunning themselve’s in ‘Sandy Lanes Resort’- Barbados ?
We will never be fit to take on our, countless foe’s outside CP until we have had an exorcism, INSIDE CP! IMO!
Hail!Hail!
Paul67
Yellow card.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon says:
22 November, 2011 at 10:30
you need yo switch the computer volume off
ASonOfDan says:
22 November, 2011 at 10:33
Was the supporter wearing the scarf in an aggressive manner though?
The game would be a bogey if Neil Doncaster had carried out the stitch-up exercise people are suggesting. But precisely because the game would be a bogey if the SPL did that, I do not believe it has done it.
Of course football fans are fickle and stupid, but we are not that fickle and stupid.
Imagine the meeting.
—
ND: “Right everyone. Rangers cheated for years and walked off with all those prizes (rubbing everyone’s noses in it), but because we have a nice offer from Sky and ESPN on the table, we’ve decided we’ll just pretend none of it happened and that they can come back in as Newco FC.”
SPL Members: “Okay.”
cavansam \o/,
That’s what I thought. From what I can gather, this clause has been included in previous tv deals, yet this time it has been publicised – obviously for a reason.
Still no sign of away games at 3pm on a Saturday? Modern TV deals stink!
The TV contract states that Sky/ESPN will pay £X to the SPL provided that there are 4 Celtic v Rangers games per season and 56 other games that they can broadcast. If Celtic or Rangers gets relegated or goes bust then Sky/ESPN can get out of the deal to renegotiate or not broadcast the SPL at all.
The “laws of the game” have not changed at all, nor have the conditions of the TV contract. At the time of announcing the last TV contract it was stated that Sky would broadcast 4 Celtic v Rangers games per season, so there is no change in the new deal. I don’t think there is a story here.
What’s in it for Celtic?
One game in the CL (of which we’d stand a better chance than ever) would bring in more revenue than a season’s worth of fixtures against Rangers.
Plus you wouldn’t have to rebuild the toilets in the Lisbon Lions after it.
The focus is not on Ibrox as they are not in control – the focus is now on Celtic.
Lets see if the suits shrink to fit the board.
Well said, RaRaRa.
Up the R … (no, that was last week’s debate).
tomtheleedstim
Let’s save our energies for specific instances of protest, when and if they start and keep coming after us, (like they are) our powder should remain dry, for the moment, in this long battle.
It’s been known long before today that bent game in Scotland, is becoming increasingly so, and will have to be won by Celtic, having a better team.
Just like any other time we’ve won it, dreams of a relegated Rangers are just dreams.
Well done to the SPL.
Having allowed Sky to pick up an ’emergency’ TV deal for a paltry £65m (roughly the same as the original Setanta deal), they’ve negotiated a new deal worth less than 25% more whilst boasting increases in viewing figures in excess of 28%.
When Setanta renegotiated their new (but ultimately failed) deal, they did so on the basis of what the deal was actually worth: £125m for four years from 2010. What we have now is a deal that in reality is worth around 50% of it’s true value.
The old Setanta deal (not the one kicking off in 2010) was worth around £13-14m per season to the SPL. The new Sky/ESPN deal is worth about £3m more, despite the increased viewing figures on Sky and the absolutely astronomical increase in viewing figures over Setanta since the original Setanta deal collapsed.
Even considering these days of ‘austerity’ one must wonder how anyone can laud this deal as being good for the SPL.
It’s interesting to note that viewing figures, attendance figures and advertising revenues in Romania (a country with similar GDP as Scotland, but with a much reduced disposable income per capita) lags well behind that of the SPL yet they managed to enjoy a TV deal that recently ended worth £30m per season. Their new, reduced deals, started this season are worth:
€58.2m RCS&RDS (7 games)
€13m Romtelecom (1 game)
€10.5m Antena 1 (1 game).
Factor in VAT and the deal is worth over €100m.
This is for three seasons and yep, as can be gleaned from above, all 9 games from each week are broadcast, with some viewing figures similar to the attending crowds (3-4 figures).
Aye, well done the SPL.
I can’t imagine the government would be too pleased, if they didn’t get all the money due.
Peterhead away in the SC draw
The cheats got Arbroath away
What a difference…..
taking pot-shots at the hierarchy who’ve, sold US down the river……
without being called a hun!
liberation………liberation………liberation……….
Come on ghuys. Hearts are ruling heads on the old blog this morning.
Logic.
If Celtic had any part in agreeing that deal they have written the clubs suicide note.
Why would anyone go to watch a game in a league that is legally rigged?
Paddy Gallagher says:
22 November, 2011 at 10:44
The focus is not on Ibrox as they are not in control – the focus is now on Celtic.
Lets see if the suits shrink to fit the board.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Superb M8!
Hail! Hai!
Greenjedi.
Exactly. They wouldn’t.
No one running Celtic can believe otherwise.
As my Grandfather used to put it. It’s been a fix ever since they started paying people to play. He was an old QP supporter and died almost 30 years.
I think he was probably right!
Dharma Bam
Yeah but the bit I don’t understand is why the SPL, SKY and ESPN plus the other members of the league think that HMRC are just going to shrug their shoulders and walk away, if the new club bears any resemblance to the old Rangers i.e. plays in Ibroke, uses some of their players, wears blue and blasts out Rule Brittania before each game, they may very well pursue legal action against the new club, or simply deny them the right to trade by not issuing a VAT number.
It all seems far too simplistic given the sums involved, HMRC will want to make an example of the Huns and no amount of local protectionism is going to help, unless everyone helps them pay the bill.
Celtic_First
my thinking is also along your lines
So the new deal will allow league restructuring as long as it is restructured into the same format as we have just now?
At the same time it casts sporting integrity to the four winds by financially incentivising Rangers being in the Top 6 in perpetuity.
*Golf Clap*
Well done to all involved.
Another 6 years of this carved up, collusive and overpriced garbage?
I feel a Duncan Bannatyne moment coming on….
Let’s look on the bright side here.
If rangers have been made untouchable by this TV deal then so have Celtic.
We can run up huge bills in the next 5 years, buying players we can’t afford and refusing to pay tax. After we go bust, we can create a new club and get our league place back and do the same thing for the next five years.
The future is bright!!!!!
The video that constantly plays when you refresh the page is doing my head in!
Has anyone actually seen the detail of this contract or is this analysis taken from press reports and quotes from Neil Doncaster?
On the plus side, should Rangers go out of business or even just relegated to lower leagues and in the worse case senario the TV contract ripped up, Celtic will be in prime position to negotiate its own TV contract.
If, as also reported, this proviso has been in all other contracts, then surely nothing has changed.
The higher price awarded to the contract could also be as the broadcasters might not think they’ll get the full five years out of it.
Far too many unknowns at the minute for us to make such sweeping generalisations.
Mort
Logic tells me that if a weakened hun/newco team are struggling to make the top 6 the referees will step up to the plate.
This deal is a CHARTER TO CHEAT.
The Honest Mistake (Sickened) 10.51
Class “Always look on the bright side of life!”
Put that bid in for Messi now!!
More sporting integrity than the ole SPL?
…and good at grapple action and golf! No wonder the ladies purr round ole Tiger!
Can somebody post the exact wording of the clause that we’re all getting so vexed about?
bournesouprecipe says:
22 November, 2011 at 10:45
The trouble is Bourne that our “army” will be severely depleted by the time the next battle comes around.
It seems lots of us are gonna be demobbed.
If the supposition is proven then the integrity (yes, I know) has gone. The game’s up mate.
Let’s just hope that there is no truth in the claims.
Over to you Celtic.