Skip to main content

Masters plays his cards close to his chest

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters was much more cautious and guarded in his comments to the FT Football Business Summit this morning that his Bundesliga counterpart Christian Seifert yesterday. However, Seifert is retiring next year whilst Masters is relatively new in the job.   Some of the questions he was asked were commercially sensitive and it is understandable that he gave no substantive reply.

On the European Super League, FT sports editor Murad Ahmed did tease out from him three key principles from a Premier League perspective: protecting weekends; qualification/access; and volume.

The UEFA proposal has already accepted that matches would take place in midweek.  However, Masters commented that none of the proposals he had seen provided for qualification via a domestic league or, if they did, only at the bottom end of the pyramid.

He also noted that there was not much support for more matches [something of an understatement].  The more matches you had the more you had to cope with.

Murad Ahmed then noted if you had fewer teams you could open up the calendar.  Was there too much football anyway?   Masters said that everything should be discussed but the 20 club model was favoured across Europe except in the Bundesliga which had a long winter break.  For the foreseeable future the Premier League would remain a 20 club competition, but it was 'something you come to along this journey.'

Masters refused to accept that domestic rights had plateaued, but he would say that anyway ahead of a negotiation.   He argued that deals in Europe were not relevant to the case of the Premier League, implying that it was at another level.   There was no rush to go to the market and 'we will choose our time.'                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 I                                                      

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more