Whelan: Spread TV money equally in Premier League
Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has blasted the way football bosses hand out satellite money and believes every side should receive the same amount of money regardless of how many times they are on the television each season. Clubs receive around £500,000 for every time a live match of theirs is covered.
But Whelan says this puts Wigan at a huge disadvantage because the glamour clubs are on television much more than them, earning more money in the process.
And Whelan insists this has to be stopped if other clubs want any chance of catching Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal.
He said: "The big clubs are on [television] ten, 15, 20 times and they get £10 million or so and that is not right.
"If you look at rugby league, and I don't believe in everything they do, but the television money is split equally amongst the teams and I still believe if they want this game to be brought closer together and more competitive we have to distribute funds on a much fairer basis.
"You can have Manchester United and Liverpool but they can't play themselves.
"They have to play Wigan and Birmingham and all the bottom teams so why should they get the priority, at least try and bring the four clubs back towards the other teams.
Whelan also referred to Kevin Keegan's comments from last weekend about how the 'Big Four' are turning the Premier League into a boring spectacle.
He said:" Kevin Keegan is a wise man and he's been in football a long time and there is a lot of truth in it.
"You and I know that next year, there are four teams and one of them are going to win the title and the others will be in the top four. That is not competition, we should move all kinds of things to get competition back into the league."
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Posted by borisK – 8 May 2008, 5:29 PM
Perhaps they need to decide air time like the US elections where both sides are required to have equal air time? I think the idea of paying them for actually being on TV is a good one, rather than just paying them because they are in the league and will happen to end up on TV a time or two. They do need to distribute the wealth better to even out the playing field a bit more, literally and figuratively.