Oct 12

Manchester United and Chelsea refuse to back Liverpool breakaway plan

• Rivals clubs distance themselves from TV rights proposal
• Liverpool want overseas rights sold on club-by-club basis

Manchester United and Chelsea are among several clubs who have moved to distance themselves from Liverpool’s proposal to break from the Premier League’s collective selling model.

It is understood that Manchester United, who claim to have 333m fans globally and have targeted overseas sponsorship revenue as a route to increase income, will oppose any moves to challenge the status quo under which the Premier League sells television rights overseas on behalf of all 20 clubs.

A spokesman for Chelsea said: “We are supportive of the Premier League on this and want to continue with the way they sell collectively.”

United insiders pointed out that their chief executive David Gill had repeatedly underlined the support of the club’s owners, the Glazer family, for the collective model. Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry earlier this year, Gill said “the collective selling of the television rights has clearly been a success and it has made things more competitive”.

It is also understood that Arsenal, Manchester City and Spurs will continue to back the collective selling arrangement, under which revenues from overseas broadcasters are shared out equally. Last season, each club received £17.9m.

The public stance of other big clubs will come as a disappointment to Liverpool, who were understood to believe that others would back them up. Ayre said that the fact that clubs in other countries, notably Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, negotiated their own rights deals gave them a growing financial advantage over English clubs.

Without the support of those who stand to benefit most the idea would be dead in the water, because none of the League’s smaller clubs would vote for something that would hugely disadvantage them.

Overseas revenues could outstrip the domestic deal, currently worth £2.1bn over three years, for the first time when the Premier League launches its tender process next year.

Liverpool would need to persuade 13 of their fellow Premier League clubs of the merit of the plan in order to force through the change. Any significant change to the Premier League rulebook requires a two thirds majority.

Liverpool’s managing director Ian Ayre became the first representative of a big Premier League team since Peter Kenyon at Manchester United in 2003 to challenge the collective sale of overseas TV rights, which brought in £1.4bn over the three years to 2012/13.

Ayre said: “Is it right that the international rights are shared equally between all the clubs? Some people will say: ‘Well you’ve got to all be in it to make it happen.’ But isn’t it really about where the revenue is coming from, which is the broadcaster, and isn’t it really about who people want to watch on that channel? We know it is us. And others.

“At some point we definitely feel there has to be some rebalance on that, because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs.”

LiverpoolChelseaManchester UnitedPremier LeagueOwen Gibsonguardian.co.uk

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Sep 12

English clubs in Europe – present but not transcendent | Kevin McCarra

Despite being Champions League regulars, top clubs from the Premier League have struggled to blend heft and finesse to make iconic teams

England’s clubs have been achieving prominence rather than excellence in the Champions League. Of late, it has mostly been the statistics that catch the eye. There has, for instance, been at least one Premier League side in six of the last seven finals. These teams have stoked the drama, particularly in 2005 when Steven Gerrard, with dynamism and talent, seemed to topple Milan single-handedly in Liverpool’s recovery from 3-0 down. In recent times, however, no team from this country has been cherished without qualification for the sheer delight its football offers.

Arsenal, with their insistence on aesthetic values, are often pleasing, but the combination of Jens Lehmann’s dismissal in the 18th minute of the 2006 final and the emerging prowess of the opposition opened up the first phase of Barcelona’s mastery. Despite the cosmopolitan nature of the Premier League, the lineups comprising footballers from all over the globe can still look parochial in style. They are not alone in faltering when confronted with La Liga excellence but England is one of the few countries with the means to afford performers of the very highest standard.

It still does not look as if we necessarily get the best out of them. The attention often falls on Premier League games in which elite sides are pitted against one another but the average match still tends to have a scrappy and hot-blooded character. That indeed is the sort of occasion to be enjoyed by fans who understand perfectly well that the silkiest of footballers will not be joining their club in the foreseeable future. For all the marketing hyperbole, the game in this country retains its ancestral purpose of warming the heart on a winter’s day.

For good or ill, television coverage and a cosmopolitan transfer market have not erased the differences between one country’s football culture and another. Even now we take it for granted that overseas players should be given time to acclimatise to the sort of matches we anticipate in England. They do this to good effect but in the process some of the refinement that made them so attractive in the first place gets diminished.

We often hear the euphemism about a foreign signing who “has to get used to the pace of our game”. This means that he had better be prepared for rough treatment. The sport is far cleaner than it once was because we now have the technology to identify wrongdoing that escaped the referee at the time but our culture still prizes the physical challenge. While there is plenty of muscle in teams from other countries, a better balance between heft and finesse is reached.

It may be telling that the one final to be won by an English club since Gerrard’s exploits came in 2008 when Manchester United defeated Chelsea, a fellow member of the Premier League, on penalties in Moscow. In four of the last six finals an English representative has been beaten by a side from the continent. We are fooling ourselves if we believe that these teams adapt perfectly when switching from Premier League football to the upper tier of the European variety.

There are ramifications to the provincialism that makes us demand, unconsciously or otherwise, that there should be a tremendous collision when teams meet. It is a little unreasonable to judge other sides by the standard of Barcelona. However, their aim has been to accommodate both deftness and brawn. Those qualities can even exist within the same body. So it is that the holding midfielder Sergio Busquets does not look as if his inclusion beside Andrés Iniesta is any kind of clerical error.

All club sides fall short of Barcelona for the time being. Real Madrid are second favourites to land the trophy but that does not necessarily put them close to Pep Guardiola’s lineup. There was desperation as much as passion in José Mourinho this season when he poked Barcelona’s assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye. Real were edged out in the second leg of the Supercopa. In addition to the sheer accomplishment, Barcelona have a strong competitive instinct even in games that were mere curtain-raisers.

Geometry and finesse set the side apart but they also act as if there is still a great deal to be achieved. If there is less diversity to La Liga than in former years then Barcelona could keep themselves to the fore without being drained of energy in the domestic arena as the English clubs could be. Should the Champions League trophy come to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Etihad Stadium or the Emirates next May it will be a success truly to be treasured.

Champions League 2011-12BarcelonaLiverpoolManchester UnitedArsenalChelseaChampions LeaguePremier LeagueKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk

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Aug 20

Manchester City’s arrivals need time to bed in, says Carlo Ancelotti

• They have a lot of skills, ability but no clear identity
• Team need time to gel, says Chelsea manager

Carlo Ancelotti believes Manchester City are a side that, as yet, still lacks “a clear identity” though the Chelsea manager has stressed the importance of establishing a lead over the Premier League’s most potent emerging force ahead of their trip to Eastlands at the end of September.

Chelsea opened their campaign with a 6-0 drubbing of West Bromwich Albion last Saturday with Ancelotti challenging his players to emulate last season’s flawless start – they won their first six league fixtures under his tenure – in the hope that the other contenders are forced to play catch-up. He counts City among the threats, though the mass of new arrivals at the club will need time to bed in, with the champions hoping to establish a lead while Roberto Mancini’s side is still gelling.

Asked to assess Chelsea’s immediate rivals after the first round of Premier League fixtures, Ancelotti said: “I saw Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City, and Spurs showed the same strength and power that they had showed last year in home games. Manchester City are not a team again but they have a lot of skills, a lot of ability. They don’t have a clear identity. They have problems. But that’s normal in the first game. You will see the power of City in a month or so.

“It’s normal that a team needs time [to adapt]. When they play against us [on 25 September] they’ll be a team. They’ve changed a lot of players and they’ll need time to adapt, not just to build their team but to give the players who have come here from other countries a period to get used to life in this country.

“We have to look at City in a month. After that we can say whether or not they are able to fight for the title. I think they will be but, for now, our main challengers are Manchester United who still have a lot of power and strength.”

Ancelotti’s principal summer signing, the Brazil midfielder Ramires, will not be considered for this evening’s visit to Wigan having only started training with the first-team squad at Cobham yesterday. Another long-standing target, the teenage forward Neymar, is to remain at Santos having accepted an improved contract at the Brazilian club, leaving Ancelotti to watch City’s lavish spending in the transfer market this summer from afar.

“The reason they did that was because they needed the players,” said Ancelotti, who may yet have to deflect interest from Real Madrid in Didier Drogba before the closure of the transfer window. “If you need the players, it’s normal to spend. If you have the money, you can spend it. Man City have the money. I can’t spend this money because I don’t have it. This club, Chelsea, bought fantastic players in the past and can use those players now six or seven years on. I’d prefer to have the players than to search for them. You’re not always able to take the players you want. I’d prefer to have the players already, and I have a fantastic squad.

“We must just concentrate on getting a good start. Last year, our start was the key to us winning the title. We would like to arrive at the City game on top of the table. “

ChelseaManchester CityCarlo AncelottiDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk

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