This week the Premier League announced it had agreed to a new domestic television deal that will see BT Sport and Sky pay $7.8bn for broadcasting rights over the next three years: a 70% increase. To put that figure in some perspective, it’s $1bn a year more than U.S. television stations currently pay to show Major League Baseball, $1.5bn a year more than Serie A receives, $1.6bn a year more than the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 receives, and nearly double the GDP of Barbados.
And it’s fair to say the rest of Europe hasn’t taken the news especially well. In France, Bernard Caiazzo, co-president of Ligue 1 side St Etienne, said: “The Premier League will become the NBA of football. It will be greater than the Champions League. Clubs such as Manchester United or Chelsea will have budgets of €700 or €800m… What is happening in England will impact on Germany, Italy, Spain. And I do not imagine that Uefa will not react.”
Photo: @FootballcomEN | Twitter
In Spain, the Premier League's bumper deal could be about to spark a strike by several La Liga clubs. Espanyol’s President Joan Collet reacted to news by telling Spanish media that “we’re willing to bring La Liga to a halt through the LFP if a decree isn’t issued about the regularization of TV rights.” Whereas in England TV money is distributed relatively evenly among the 20 clubs, in Spain each club negotiates its own television deal. Unsurprisingly, that means Barcelona and Real Madrid receive as much as ten times the monies flowing to the rest: where La Liga champions Atletico Madrid took home $48m, Real Madrid pocketed $159m. “Any team in the Premier League can sign your best player by doubling their salary,” Collet added. “That's what's happening to us and it will keep happening if this situation isn't sorted out,”
Then on Saturday afternoon Bayern Munich fans joined in, unveiling the below banner during their Bundesliga fixture against FC Hamburg:
Photo: @MailSport | Twitter
We thought the bottom half read “And We Know We’re Hypocrites”, but apparently it says “No To The English Model”, which is a little rich coming from a club that, just a couple of seasons ago, had the highest commercial income in world football and regularly uses its financial clout to snap up the talent of teams lower down the Bundesliga (see: Lewandowski, Robert and Gotze, Mario for just two recent examples). For their part, Bundesliga chiefs have said they will consider more varied kick-off times in reaction to the Premier League's record deal.
It's easy enough to understand Europe's ire. The new TV deal means that all 20 Premier League sides - from Chelsea to Burnley (should they survive) - will rank in the Top 40 richest football clubs in the world come next season. The team that finishes bottom of the Premier League next year is estimated to earn $151m in prize money, with the winner likely to pocket upwards of $250m. Last year Juventus received $106m, PSG $50m, Atletico Madrid $48m and Bayern Munich $40m. With Financial Fair Play in theory dictating that clubs must live within their means, that sort of revenue advantage will be difficult to overturn, and as Arsene Wenger has said, EPL teams will be able to "attract who they want", robbing talent from Europe's less wealthy competitions.
Of course, the big winners from all this will be the players (and their agents. And Bentley salesmen). With base TV revenues of up to $250m, plus gate receipts, sponsorship deals and other commercial income streams, and the premium that selling clubs from Europe will demand of their English counterparts, the Premier League's first $150m or even $200m player may only be one or two transfer windows away.
