TV deal should remain for now, but SFL will also want slice of the pie

AMONG several imponderables thrown up by the financial chaos which has engulfed Rangers is the question of the current television broadcasting deal, which, as it stands, is pinned to the previously sacrosanct allotment of four Old Firm matches.

Clearly, with the very likely consequence of Rangers’ liquidation being a newco’s expatriation in the First Division, there will be a need to at the very least re-negotiate the deal which already exists between Sky/ESPN and the SPL.

One hopes the negotiating tables at Hampden are well upholstered, because there is a lot of talking still to be done. The issue of television coverage is just one area which needs to be addressed as quickly as possible, although nothing can be settled until the ultimate issue is resolved – where will Rangers play next season?

If, as expected, they are deposited in the SFL, then the league organisation will suddenly have a very marketable product on their hands. That’s not to say they can necessarily begin alerting TV companies to their good fortune. The SFL’s television deals are negotiated by IMG, the same company which won the race to be appointed advisors to the SPL in relation to the potential establishment of an ‘SPL television channel’ last year. IMG have declined to comment on the situation until the SPL vote, scheduled for 4 July, has been conducted, and the result known.

More pressing is the need to re-negotiate the present SPL television deal with Sky, which still has two years to run. The unsigned £80 million deal which was set to supersede it will remain unsigned and looks to be barely worth the paper it is written on thanks to the seismic shift in circumstances. It was the prospect of this deal being stymied which caused most club officials to prevaricate when it became clear that Rangers were guilty of compromising the league’s integrity. The £ signs in their eyes caused many to hesitate, though it looks as though most will now follow the lead of Hearts and Dundee United and say no to a Rangers newco in the SPL.

Sky, though, remain committed to Scottish football, in the near future at least. There will need to be some re-negotiation, however. One Scotsman source believes the most likely scenario will see the SPL re-negotiate the terms of the television deals with Sky and ESPN, with one or both of the broadcasters likely to take up the option to show Rangers’ SFL fixtures – if that is where they will play.

This will involve some detailed negotiations between the SPL and SFL, if, as is likely, the latter body agree to the SPL conducting talks with their broadcast partners. The SFL, which already receives an annual payment of around £2 million from the SPL as part of the terms of the severance payment dating back to 1998, will demand a further percentage of income from the top tier. They are in a good position to negotiate a satisfactory slice of the television revenue pie, since the acquiescence of SFL clubs will be required in order to shoe-horn Rangers into the First Division.

There is no precedent for such chicanery, with Gretna having had to drop to the Third Division from the SPL after a liquidation event.

Of even more immediate concern is the Ramsdens Cup, a competition not normally known for giving TV executives a headache. BBC Alba have shown the final live in each of the last four seasons but there is currently no active television contract in place for the competition, which is played in regional sections. Complicating things is the fact that either Dundee and Dunfermline are the most likely beneficiaries of Rangers’ plight.

Both have been drawn to play away at Brechin and Forfar in the North East section of the draw, with the games due to be played in just five weeks’ time, on 28 July. If Rangers do need to compete in the competition, replacing either Dundee or Dunfermline, the first round will likely be drawn again. With huge interest sure to be attracted by Rangers’ first post-liquidation game, it is likely that BBC Alba would be unable to compete in the race to win television rights to broadcast the match. It is notable that the most significant shake-up of Scottish football has come not as a consequence of the Henry McLeish report into the Scottish game, nor Ernie Walker’s much trumpeted Think Tank of even longer ago. Instead, it comes as a consequence of Rangers’ financial demise, which itself could be said to have come as a consequence of the speculate-to-accumulate philosophy encouraged by the creation of the Scottish Premier League in 1998. That was supposed to be the death knell of the SFL. Instead, 14 years later, the league prepares to welcome Rangers, one of the world’s most decorated club sides, into its fold.

If not holding all the cards, the SFL can demand a greater say in the re-shaping of Scottish football’s future than anyone could once have imagined.