Glen Gibbons: TV deal does little to swell coffers of SPL also-rans

THE SCOTTISH Premier League’s renewal of its contract with satellite broadcasters Sky and ESPN is good news – but mainly in the way that a surgeon tells a man who has lost a limb in what could have been a fatal accident that he is very lucky.

The patient is hardly likely to host a party to celebrate his good fortune.

The announcement of this kind of agreement – with its extended period of coverage and improved terms – is almost invariably couched in language that hints at a commercial “coup”, for which those at the sharp end (in this case, SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster and his team) should be properly recognised and applauded. It is also, however, more often than not accompanied by an irritating reluctance to release such basic details of the deal as how much it is actually worth.

Newspaper headline writers, who love strings of zeroes, and the general public, to whom the story is quite meaningless without figures, are therefore frustrated by the very people who are attempting to curry their goodwill. And so it is left to reporters to start the sniffing process and, inevitably, unearth information that could just as easily have been made available on request.

The total of £80 million over five years (representing an increase of £16m on the previous deal) was the sum generally purveyed by the media and it will be as close as makes no difference to the truth. The amount suggests that the self-appointed arbiters of what should and should not be made public might have realised that scrutiny of the new agreement would reveal that the “bounty” could not exactly be described as life-changing.

Providing gross revenue of £16m annually, it seems reasonable to propose that the net figure – that is, after costs – to be distributed among members will be, at most, around £13m. Since the teams who occupy the top two places in the league at the end of each season (that’s an alias for the Old Firm) take out 32 per cent of the pot, it leaves just under £9m to be shared among the other ten.

After the initial, equitable split of 48 per cent of the total, however, the remaining 52 per cent is allocated on finishing position and the lowest club, on top of being relegated, could accrue a sum of less than £400,000.

Too much dwelling on arithmetic tends to leave the average supporter/reader cold – be assured it does nothing to warm the writer, either – but there would surely be a collective perking-up in many quarters at a couple of other revelations that followed the announcement of the new agreement. These were so significant that they should, mercifully, put an end to speculation over two of the most futile and boring debates to have entered the national consciousness over the past few years.

The items involved pre-conditions imposed by the television people, who clearly have a heightened sense of what attracts an audience big enough to register on the scanners. One proviso is that Celtic and Rangers will play each other four times a year. At a stroke, therefore, those who champion the cause of an increase in the number of SPL members – with a consequent reduction in fixtures – might as well put their banners back in the bottom drawer.

The other is even more starkly uncompromising and potentially harmful to the future prospects of the organisation. It is a non-negotiable demand that the two Glasgow giants actually remain in the SPL. Any defection by them invalidates the agreement, with the unmissable implication of financial collapse for the league.

It is a prospect that should make those who have made most noise about their desire to see the back of the Old Firm at least reconsider. While they are at it, they may also wish to contemplate the difference between football as a TV-free zone and the “excessive” live broadcasting that seems to have got so many in a stew over the past few years. Even for the slower-witted, that’s an exercise that should take about three seconds.

Airdrie Utd enliven Tim’s farewell

In THESE days of threatened cataclysm after 120 years of relative serenity, how accommodating of Scottish football to cling to a tradition that has brought a certain distinction to the old game through the six-and-a-half decades since television first began to take a serious interest.

Late last Saturday afternoon brought the farewell reading of the classified results on the BBC’s Final Score programme by the retiring 82-year-old Tim Gudgin. Having succeeded the legendary Len Martin in 1995 to become only the second man in broadcasting history to hold the post, Tim’s departure was a poignant occasion, entirely worthy of an unforgettable valediction.

The reliable wackiness of Scottish football was predictably obliging, allowing Tim to announce, among other attention-grabbing scorelines, “Airdrie United 11, Gala Fairydean 0”.

This would be no surprise among those familiar with Martin’s famous fear of one day being faced with having to get his tongue round Forfar Four, East Fife Five.