Yesterday, we got some information on what the likely breakdown of TV money that Celtic is likely to get as Champions. It’s around £4.2 million. It is, in short, a pathetically small sum, almost insulting when you consider the league down south which continues to suck all life in the football universe towards it. Our game’s governors have got literally everything wrong when it comes to this. Literally everything. And the clubs have played their part.
The risks of the Premier League leaving us behind were obvious. So obvious that English clubs in the lower leagues made sure that they had protections against it. What protections did we have? We’re their closest neighbour. But the UK is a single political entity and we operate in a single TV market and we would have had heavy political support if we had demanded a slice of the deal as the lower league clubs south of the border did.
And you know how I know we’d have had that political support? Labour and the Tories would have given it to us for no other reason than the screw the SNP, by making it a “union dividend.” It might have swayed a section of public opinion, although how they would have justified revoking it in the event Scotland went independent, I do not know … that would have been a non-starter both legally and morally … and did the SFA and the clubs have the imagination for it?
No, of course they didn’t.
And they won’t pursue legal avenues either, although the case for that, on the grounds of our joint TV market, is virtually iron-clad. The EU would have agreed with us too, but it’s too late to pursue that avenue. It’s just a complete failure of leadership and guts, and a complete disaster in terms of imagination. The English clubs would fight – the EPL would fight like cornered tigers – but rather than allow the court case to proceed I also think they and the TV companies would have settled.
But we’ll never know, because nobody pushed the button on it.
And so, the biggest club in Scotland, having won the league, gets less than a team in the English Championship does. The parachute payment for sides in the first year is more than ten times what our title winning club gets. It is appalling, and it’s going to be the situation for the foreseeable future, no matter how big and crazy the English TV deal gets.
The clubs tolerate so much, but I feel Celtic tolerates more than most because we have the most to lose from the status quo and yet we defend it as though it were serving us well. Clearly, it is not. Obviously, it is not. But we continue to go along with it.
It is high time this club stopped propping these jokers up. We need a strategy for bridging the gap with the EPL and we’re not going to do it playing nice. People need to get real, or we’re stuck with these table scraps forever, and the gap is just going to grow and grow.
James I would say you’ve got your calculations wrong the parachute pay ment was £120,000,000 this season it went up to £150,000,000 that’s £10 ,000,000 short of 40 times we get if everyone in Scotland stopped paying for sky/virgin ect it would come to at least 10/15 times we are getting just now
Don’t expect Nicholson or Lawwell to rock the boat. They’ve just secured their annual bonuses. Job done.
Offer tv season tickets to Celtic fans in UK for all home games.
People will argue that it may affect season ticket sales.
I don’t think so, given the waiting lists etc.
Many people prefer not travelling climbing stairs, parking, walking, cold winter days, have disabilities etc.
The tickets would sell
Look at how many seek out streams on a Saturday.
They don’t need to be cheap.
It’s a convenience access purchase rather than an alternative to a season ticket.
PS I had a season ticket for 10 years & never missed home champions league games.
I just prefer my own chair & facilities.
I would agree to selling TV season tickets. They could fill in the half-time break with adverts while everybody is away making the tea or checking up on the OF Sevco results. It would be better than listening to Peter Grant. People don`t go to the games just to watch the football. I`m quite sure that most season tickets will be paid for by wives just to get the man out the house. I know for a fact Peter Lawwell`s is. Surely Celtic could sell another 60,000 TVSTs.
Even a fiver a game would give them more than they get at the moment. They could even have a fleet of jelly and ice cream vans going around the streets playing You`ll Never Watch (TV) Alone.
The SFA, Get a lot for the Scotland team and themselves etc. But I do believe we have 4 the small country more payer’s to the sites per capita. And still get nothing back due to the SFA, handling of it all. They will pay ipox more than us through the back door.