So Ian Ayre ruffled some feathers when he suggested that Liverpool should break away from the rest of the E.P.L. and negotiate T.V. rights on our own, I am with Ian 100% on this and here is my reasoning.
The criticism of this plan has come from both sides, many Liverpool supporters oppose this plan based on principal that it makes us look ‘greedy’ while of course the L.F.C. haters simply got more ammunition to fire at us. From a Liverpool F.C. perspective I fully understand where the Liverpool fans who disagree with this are coming from, this violates the whole Shankly principals of Socialism and sharing. What would Bill Shankly think of such as plan? He would probably disagree with it however the age of Shankly was a different time. Players weren’t millionaires, owners weren’t billionaires and there was no such thing as league games on TV live via satellite.
This is 2011, unfortunately football has evolved (not for the better), we have no choice but to evolve and be more egoistic if we want to compete for trophies. The UEFA rules dictates that clubs live within their means so we don’t have a choice but to generate more revenue in order to spend more on quality players. In the last five years we have seen Chelsea and Manchester City sink millions into their clubs while we sat on the sidelines with Hicks and Gillett. City are pretty much cheating these new rules already by getting an exorbitant amount for their stadium sponsorship from a company pretty much owned by the same owner.
I am not surprised that the likes of Wigan will be against it, Chelsea too criticised the plan which again is not surprising as they know that they still haven’t built a global support like ours. Manchester United are just being themselves and trying to distance from it however they know that they will benefit too if they had to go on their own. Quite frankly United, Arsenal and of course Liverpool are the most supported E.P.L. teams worldwide, Chelsea have built up some while Manchester City would probably generate TV viewership due to their star players.
If this is a problem to them why not base the revenues on viewership? We know who people want to see play, the only time you will see Wigan live on many international TV stations is when they are playing a bigger club. These little clubs are no angels by any means, they jack up their prices when they play us or one of the other big clubs. Newcastle, Aston Villa, Stoke and Blackpool sure didn’t show any charity when they slapped huge price tags on the players we wanted to sign.
The charity from Liverpool F.C. will continue by loaning our young talents out to smaller clubs and offering friendlies to help boost their income. Why do you think we are playing a friendly against Glasgow Rangers next week? Unfortunately when we were on the verge of filing for administration last year no one showed us mercy.
Y.N.W.A.
-Antoine