Clubs paying price for shaking hands with TV ‘devil’ says Sir Alex

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has launched an attack on television’s power over football, saying clubs are having to pay the price for “shaking hands with the devil”.

The Scot also claimed that clubs do not get enough cash from TV deals. United earned more than £60 million in television money from the Premier League last season plus a further £46 million from the Champions League. But Ferguson said the clubs deserved more from overseas rights and he blamed television schedules for creating “ridiculous situations” for teams playing in Europe.

He said the vast amount of money pumped into the game by broadcasters means clubs have lost control of their fixture lists. Ferguson explained: “When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price. Television is God at the moment.

“It shows itself quite clearly because, when you see the fixture lists come out now, they can pick and choose whenever they want the top teams on television. You get some ridiculous situations when you’re playing on Wednesday night in Europe and then at lunchtime the following Saturday. You ask any manager if they would pick that themselves and there would be no chance.”

The Premier League has seen the biggest growth in the value of television rights from overseas deals – the current deals are worth a total of £1.4 billion over three years, more than double the previous amount.

Ferguson insisted the clubs deserved more however. He pointed out the Premier League sold their product to 200 countries and added: “When you think of that I don’t think we get enough money.”

Ferguson was speaking on the eve of United’s Champions League Group C clash with Basle at Old Trafford. The manager confirmed that Rooney would miss the match with a hamstring injury and said that it was difficult to know when the England striker would be back in action.

“He’s not playing. It’s difficult to assess with hamstrings but we hope we have him back quickly. He did a bit of jogging this morning but that’s all,” added Ferguson.

The Scot also said that Hernandez’s dead leg would keep him out against Basle, but that the Mexican should be back for when Norwich visit on league business on Saturday.

Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov are likely to lead the attack against the Swiss club, though the fit-again Danny Welbeck could also feature, with Rio Ferdinand partnering Phil Jones in central defence.

Basle won their opening fixture in Group C 2-1 against Romanian side Otelul Galati while United drew 1-1 with Benfica and Ferguson said United would respect their opponents tonight.

He added: “We played Basle a few years ago and they have always been the premier team in Switzerland. Switzerland have started to produce good young players – in fact they got to final of the European Under-21s this year. The national team has always been reasonably good and always seem to represent themselves quite well and, of course, the Basle team have good experience of being in Europe quite a few times, so we will respect that.”

Manchester City, meanwhile, travel to Germany for a Group A match with in-form Bayern Munich. The Bundesliga side are on an impressive nine-game winning streak, without conceding a goal, but City striker Edin Dzeko says tonight’s opponents are far from unbeatable.

“No team is unbeatable and neither is Bayern,” said Dzeko, who won the Bundesliga title with VfL Wolfsburg in 2009. “They are playing very well, nine games and no goals conceded, obviously that’s superb, but we are also good and it will be a very interesting game, especially for the fans.”

City, who drew their opening match with Napoli, are without the suspended Mario Balotelli, while Owen Hargreaves has not been registered for Europe.