The Premier League’s wealthiest clubs remain keen to sell broadcasting rights on a club-by-club basis and end the equal distribution of TV revenue, Liverpool’s chief executive, Ian Ayre, has confirmed.
Liverpool’s outgoing CEO said a threatened break-up of the Premier League’s collective broadcasting deal “is still being debated” in the boardrooms of leading clubs despite the current model generating more than £10bn between 2016-19. The admission will alarm other top-flight clubs, who share the spoils of collective selling at home and overseas, and critics who argue the competitiveness of the Premier League is what makes it the most lucrative in the world.
Ayre caused controversy in 2011 when he revealed Liverpool were leading calls for overseas TV rights to be sold on an individual basis. Despite fierce opposition within the Premier League, and Spain abandoning their individual broadcasting model last season, the Anfield official claims the idea is still alive.
“I think the Premier League is the beacon of success for all league football,” said Ayre, who has brought forward plans to leave Liverpool to the end of the month and agreed to become managing director at 1860 Munich. “The equalities that exist in it are right to a degree and the way it’s governed – I’m talking about the Premier League rather than English football.
“There’s so much that so many leagues can learn from the Premier League. There are still things to make better.
“I was supposedly very outspoken early on in my time here about whether the bigger brands in English football should share a bigger part of the spoils. I still believe that is true. At that time, I also said I thought that not doing that would have some effect on the decline of English football in Europe – that’s coming to pass.
“It’s something to look at and it’s something that is still being debated within English football.
“There is so much good in the Premier League. They do so much so well. Leicester City last year is testament to that. It’s still the most competitive league in the world. The Premier League is a real beacon.”
The Premier League’s existing deal is worth £10.4bn to members – comprising of £5.3bn from domestic broadcasting and £5.1bn for overseas rights – and shared equally with the exception of prize-money for final league positions. When he first broached the subject in 2011, Ayre advocated the individual TV contracts enjoyed by Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga as an example for the Premier League to follow. However, Spain reverted to collective TV rights and equal distribution from the start of this season, albeit while ensuring its leading clubs do not suffer a fall in broadcasting revenue.
Ayre’s argument six years ago, one that continues to shape his outlook, was that: “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.”
Liverpool visit Hull City on Saturday with Jürgen Klopp admitting his team need to become more streetwise to improve their Premier League title prospects. Klopp was impressed not only by David Luiz’s free‑kick when Chelsea drew at Anfield on Tuesday but examples of title-winning nous throughout Antonio Conte’s side. He accepts that Liverpool must catch up.
“I am not sure if you can force something like this on players but it’s a good thing to have in football,” the Liverpool manager said. “If you are a clever side it is part of the football skills. They are more experienced and sometimes more clever or smart, however you want to say it, with the situation with the free-kick. In the end it is a great free-kick, too.
“Yes, we can improve on this but we cannot improve every day on every thing. We have to still be focused on a few things we can do immediately. With experience comes the other things. You can’t buy experience, you have to do it together. If a player comes in and says “This is how we did it at my other club’ maybe that was right for the team he played at before but not exactly the same for now. We need to create things together and when things are working we are creating moments. At Chelsea we had a goal by Dejan Lovren that was clever. No-one can remember it. A short free-kick. Two passes, they went in one direction and we knew they would so we had men over at the back. Nobody said after that was clever. We have these parts to the game.”
