Sir Alex Ferguson says television has too much power over English game
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes television has too much power over the English game.
In an exclusive interview with BBC North West Tonight, Ferguson said TV controls aspects of the game because of the vast amount of money it provides.
He claimed clubs had lost control over fixtures and this has had a detrimental effect on those competing in Europe.
"When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price," he said. "Television is God at the moment."
He added: "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 themself and there'd be no chance."
And clubs, the 69-year-old Scot added, are not even getting the kind of money they deserve from TV. He said the Premier league sold their product to 200 countries and "when you think of that I don't think we get enough money".
The Premier League's television rights deal was last renewed in February 2009 when Sky reportedly paid in excess of £1.6bn to show five 23-game packages from 2010-13. Irish-based broadcaster Setanta paid £159m for one bundle of 69 matches over the three years. This package was later taken over by ESPN.
The record deal equates to clubs earning, on average, £4.3m for each game shown live on TV.
More to follow.
Viewers in the north-west of England will be able to see the full interview with Sir Alex Ferguson on North West Tonight on BBC1 at 1830 BST.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes television has too much power over the English game.
In an exclusive interview with BBC North West Tonight, Ferguson said TV controls aspects of the game because of the vast amount of money it provides.
He claimed clubs had lost control over fixtures and this has had a detrimental effect on those competing in Europe.
"When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price," he said. "Television is God at the moment."
He added: "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 themself and there'd be no chance."
And clubs, the 69-year-old Scot added, are not even getting the kind of money they deserve from TV. He said the Premier league sold their product to 200 countries and "when you think of that I don't think we get enough money".
The Premier League's television rights deal was last renewed in February 2009 when Sky reportedly paid in excess of £1.6bn to show five 23-game packages from 2010-13. Irish-based broadcaster Setanta paid £159m for one bundle of 69 matches over the three years. This package was later taken over by ESPN.
The record deal equates to clubs earning, on average, £4.3m for each game shown live on TV.
More to follow.
Viewers in the north-west of England will be able to see the full interview with Sir Alex Ferguson on North West Tonight on BBC1 at 1830 BST.
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