Liverpool are right to raise anomaly of TV rights – but it is La Liga that should change

Ostensibly, it appeared that Ian Ayre, the Liverpool chief executive, had given a series of interviews to coincide with the one-year anniversary since Tom Hicks and George Gillett were successfully ousted as owners.

Yet, deliberately or not, the story today is not the changes at Liverpool over the past 12 months but his call for the Premier League to allocate more of their £1.4 billion from overseas television rights to its most popular clubs.

As it stands, the Premier League markets its product collectively and broadly shares the income.

It means that Manchester United, with their vast global fan-base, benefits just as much as Swansea City or Wigan Athletic from the sale of television rights to 212 countries outside the United Kingdom.

Liverpool have understandably pointed out that in some other countries, notably Spain, clubs sell their rights on an individual basis. It means that Barcelona and Real Madrid can generate considerably more income from this specific revenue stream than any English club.

Yet it also means that the smaller clubs in Spain’s La Liga earn dramatically less than their counterparts in the Premier League.

As a whole, La Liga also earns considerably less than the Premier League. The result? Barcelona and Real Madrid are exceptionally wealthy and well-placed to dominate in Europe while the rest of La Liga begin just about every season playing for third. Indeed, over the past two years, no club has finished within 20 points of either Barcelona or Real Madrid.

In that context, it is easy to understand the temptation for the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

They are the clubs with the largest global fan-bases and, in theory, the most to gain from selling their television rights individually. The wider and more long-term question, however, is just why those clubs have developed such a vast worldwide fan-base.

All of the evidence suggests that it has really snowballed during the incredible booms years of the Premier League. And why has the Premier League been so popular? Because it is generally very competitive. Widen the gap between the clubs and that key quality would be lost. The Premier League certainly subscribe to this theory and are certain that it is the collective strength of all the clubs which underpins its vast global reach.

In his interview, Ayre cited the 80,000 fans who came to watch Liverpool in Malaysia, but would they really have been so aware were it not for the type of league his club plays in?

In any case, the hard reality of the situation is that it is not the Premier League who Liverpool have to convince of their case. To pass a change in the way overseas television income is distributed, they would have to persuade a two-thirds majority of their rivals clubs. That’s 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs. Given that Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all opposed to the idea, it is clear that there is little prospect of change.

If Ayre cannot convince those who would most benefit, he has no chance of persuading others to sign up to something that would reduce their income and further cement the dominance of the elite clubs. It should also be noted that Ayre’s comments have been met today with significant scepticism from around the country.

After all, with Liverpool having made such little progress on building a new ground and with their commercial revenues dwarfed by Manchester United, they are currently faced with limited options as they try to build their income.

Yet at a time when Uefa are introducing regulations relating to ‘financial fair-play’, Ayre was right to highlight the obvious anomaly of clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid being able to sell their TV rights individually.

If Uefa are serious about financial fairness and introducing collective fiscal rules, they should surely also insist on a uniform method among the major leagues for selling their television rights. And it is the model of Spain’s La Liga which should be changed rather than that of the English Premier League.

Liverpool are right to raise anomaly of TV rights – but it is La Liga that should change and not the Premier League

Ostensibly, it appeared that Ian Ayre, the Liverpool chief executive, had given a series of interviews to coincide with the one-year anniversary since Tom Hicks and George Gillett were successfully ousted as owners.

Yet, deliberately or not, the story today is not the changes at Liverpool over the past 12 months but his call for the Premier League to allocate more of their £1.4 billion from overseas television rights to its most popular clubs.

As it stands, the Premier League markets its product collectively and broadly shares the income.

It means that Manchester United, with their vast global fan-base, benefits just as much as Swansea City or Wigan Athletic from the sale of television rights to 212 countries outside the United Kingdom.

Liverpool have understandably pointed out that in some other countries, notably Spain, clubs sell their rights on an individual basis.

It means that Barcelona and Real Madrid can generate considerably more income from this specific revenue stream than any English club.

Yet it also means that the smaller clubs in Spain’s La Liga earn dramatically less than their counterparts in the Premier League.

As a whole, La Liga also earns considerably less than the Premier League. The result? Barcelona and Real Madrid are exceptionally wealthy and well-placed to dominate in Europe while the rest of La Liga begin just about every season playing for third.

Indeed, over the past two years, no club has finished within 20 points of either Barcelona or Real Madrid.

In that context, it is easy to understand the temptation for the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

They are the clubs with the largest global fan-bases and, in theory, the most to gain from selling their television rights individually.

The wider and more long-term question, however, is just why those clubs have developed such a vast worldwide fan-base.

All of the evidence suggests that it has really snowballed during the incredible booms years of the Premier League. And why has the Premier League been so popular? Because it is generally very competitive. Widen the gap between the clubs and that key quality would be lost.

The Premier League certainly subscribe to this theory and are certain that it is the collective strength of all the clubs which underpins its vast global reach.

In his interview, Ayre cited the 80,000 fans who came to watch Liverpool in Malaysia, but would they really have been so aware were it not for the type of league his club plays in?

In any case, the hard reality of the situation is that it is not the Premier League who Liverpool have to convince of their case. To pass a change in the way overseas television income is distributed, they would have to persuade a two-thirds majority of their rivals clubs.

That’s 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs. Given that Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all opposed to the idea, it is clear that there is little prospect of change.

If Ayre cannot convince those who would most benefit, he has no chance of persuading others to sign up to something that would reduce their income and further cement the dominance of the elite clubs.

It should also be noted that Ayre’s comments have been met today with significant scepticism from around the country. After all, with Liverpool having made such little progress on building a new ground and with their commercial revenues dwarfed by Manchester United, they are currently faced with limited options as they try to build their income.

Yet at a time when Uefa are introducing regulations relating to ‘financial fair-play’, Ayre was right to highlight the obvious anomaly of clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid being able to sell their TV rights individually.

If Uefa are serious about financial fairness and introducing collective fiscal rules, they should surely also insist on a uniform method among the major leagues for selling their television rights. And it is the model of Spain’s La Liga which should be changed rather than that of the English Premier League.

Carlos Tevez – a day in the life …

Man on fire: Carlos Tevez ain't gonna take it no more. Photo: AFP/Getty

(A day in the life of Manchester City's rebel without a clue, as mistranslated by an evil journalist)

I am wake early, and am having nice afternoon sitting in the kitchen designing a new range of snoods and talking to butler. I like butler; sometimes I think he is only one that understand me.

The wife comes in; she look angry. This could be trouble – I don’t want her to make me move countries again. She say to butler that someone is ringing at the front door bell for many minutes and why can butler not go answer the door like he is paid to do?

I look at butler. Butler look at me.

I know I have to take a stands. I put down my snood-designing crayon.

“No way,” I say. “It’s not your place to tell butler where to come and go. I like him here in kitchen with me. We are drawing picture of snood and deciding which watch to buy today.”

I show her design of latest snood: the Tévez Freedom Fighter snood. Is picture of me and Eva Peron fighting together against injustice (represented by Mancini dressed up as the forces of oppression in a dirty scarf).

She look at picture with sneer of disgust; like Sir Ferguson when I tell him I need more pay-rise to pay for fashionable clothes and fleet of cars befitting a man of my position.

My wife says this is ridiculous and that we pay butler so we can tell him to go and do things. She says it is bad enough that she cannot get a decent empanada for love nor money in Alderley Edge, and now she cannot tell the servants what to do?

I will prove her that I am the boss around here. To make my point, I start crying until she says butler can stay.

When I am stop crying, she say: “Okay Carlos. You go answer the door yourself then.”

No way. I am not warmed up properly for that. I go to sit over by breakfast bar and avoid her gazes. This is the time for me to say “No más”. Her request is totally unreasonable.

LATER Wife is still angry and she has been on phone to Mancini. I am been exiled to sit in garden with gardener. I do not like gardener; he has little interest in snoods. I expect we shall have to move to Italy.

Owen Hargreaves: A romantic fairytale or the start of more Manchester misery?

There is a cruel joke doing the rounds on Twitter suggesting that the deal to take former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves to Manchester City has hit a snag due to an injury caused by him falling out of the transfer window.

After more than three years of injury misery, Hargreaves probably doesn’t find the wisecrack too funny, but the consolation for the 30-year-old is that he now has an incredible opportunity to prove his doubters wrong at City.

In terms of surprise moves, Hargreaves to City ranks up there with Eric Cantona from Leeds to Manchester United — on both occasions, news of the impending move was greeted with a reaction of incredulity, bewilderment and disbelief.

Nobody at City is suggesting for one minute that Hargreaves will perform for them as Cantona performed for United. The comparison between the two players ends with the initial response to their respective moves.

But while the shock of Cantona was due to Sir Alex Ferguson’s audacity and Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson’s readiness to sell to his club’s biggest rival, the wow factor of City’s move for Hargreaves relates purely to their belief that he can contribute to a team challenging for Premier League and Champions League honours.

By releasing him at the end of his contract in May, United clearly felt that a sum total of six minutes on the pitch (plus 45 minutes in the reserves) since Sept 2008 was proof enough that Hargreaves, sidelined for so long following double knee surgery, was not capable of measuring up to the demands of life at Old Trafford.

City, obviously, are planning a heavily-incentivised contract which is as good as a no-lose situation for the club.

If Hargreaves succeeds, it would be viewed as a real coup by City, plus a huge embarrassment for United, who would be perceived as having allowed a top-class player to walk out of the club for nothing.

Yet if Hargreaves fails, it will have been a gamble worth taking as nobody can doubt the player’s credentials.

When fit, he is, or was, one of the world’s best defensive midfielders, but there is a danger that romantic recollections of a player who peaked five years ago are simply teeing Hargreaves up for another fall.

The gamble of moving to City is surely all on Hargreaves’s part.

Having insisted recently that he can play 40 games a season and break into England’s Euro 2012 squad, moving to City almost certainly rules out the prospect of 40 games a season.

Had he moved to West Bromwich Albion following talks with the club last month, Hargreaves could have become a central figure at The Hawthorns — fitness permitting — and ensured that he walked into the England squad.

He simply will not play enough games at City to do that, so does he want to play every week or is he happy to play maybe 10-15 games for a club challenging for honours, but perhaps sacrificing his international ambitions at the same time?

It is a tough dilemma and there are arguments for accepting either challenge.

But maybe the biggest challenge facing Hargreaves is the one that the fans will not see — his ability to train every day and cope with the demanding regime imposed at City by Roberto Mancini, which Craig Bellamy found to be totally unsuitable to his needs following knee problems.

Getting Hargreaves on the pitch at Eastlands is one thing, ensuring he trains sufficiently, day to day, is another, as one of the cruel ironies of his time at United was the setbacks suffered on the training pitch, away from the glare of the cameras.

So more than three years since being considered a fully-fit member of Ferguson’s first-team squad, Hargreaves must now start all over again.

He has a point to prove and many will hope he succeeds. At 30, he is too young to walk away from the game and England certainly miss his contribution.

But Hargreaves at his best was all about high-energy, forceful tackles and never giving less than 100 per cent.

Three years away is a long time, however. He has missed another pre-season and has not played for almost ten months, so he is already facing an uphill battle to turn out for City in the near future.

He is at least a month away from fitness — a statement we have heard far too often about Owen Hargreaves in the last few years.

Manchester United 2 Barcelona 1: Michael Owen gives United the winning feeling against Barcelona

Manchester United 2 Barcelona 1

Att: 81,807

FedEx Field, Maryland.

It might not go down as the most important goal of Michael Owen’s career, but the next time Manchester United face Barcelona, they will do so having experienced the sensation of beating the European champions thanks to the former England striker’s second-half winner in Washington.

Having endured two comprehensive Champions League final defeats against Barcelona in the last three seasons, any victory against Pep Guardiola’s team is something to be cherished.

Whether it will make any difference the next time United tackle Barca in a competitive fixture, only time will tell, but a win, as they say, is a win and Owen’s goal – a clinical finish past Victor Valdes from Tom Cleverley’s 76th minute pass – has given United proof that Barcelona can be beaten.

With just 63 days separating the 3-1 Champions League final defeat at Wembley and this friendly on the outskirts of Washington – in the somewhat less prestigious Herbalife World Football Challenge – United’s wounds were undoubtedly still raw from Barcelona’s victory in north London.

The good news for Sir Alex Ferguson’s team, however, was the absence of Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano, Dani Alves and summer signing Alexis Sanchez from the Barcelona line-up due to their recent involvement in the Copa America.

Both Ferguson and Barca coach Guardiola fielded experimental starting teams, with youngsters among more experienced performers, but there was a clear opportunity for United to secure the psychological lift that would come with a victory against the European champions.

With temperatures approaching the mid-90s at kick-off, the searing heat was likely to prove the most formidable opponent for both sets of players.

But United started strongly and Wayne Rooney missed a golden chance to put his team ahead just ten minutes into the game.

Danny Welbeck’s pass to Nani on the right flank resulted in the Portuguese winger crossing to Rooney at the near post, but despite standing unmarked just six yards out, Rooney scuffed his shot wide of Valdes’s left-hand post.

In their two Champions League final defeats against Barcelona, United started well before being overrun after the opening 20 minutes, but they maintained their grip on the game on this occasion.

An early injury to Rafael, who appeared to damage his right knee in a 13th minute collision with Seydou Keita was a setback, however, and the Brazilian full-back could now miss the start of the season if the injury proves as problematic as it appeared as he limped down the touchline after being replaced by twin brother Fabio.

Having spent the last three weeks in the States, with four games against local opposition, United appeared sharper and more match hardened than Barcelona, who were playing their fourth game in a week, and they were able to suppress the Spanish team’s passing game.

And United were rewarded for their bright start when Nani opened the scoring after springing the offside trap on 22 minutes.

Nani appeared to have strayed offside before racing onto Welbeck’s pass, but replay suggested that the winger had timed his run perfectly before poking the ball under Valdes from 10 yards.

In a tetchy game that saw several late challenges and a booking for Barcelona defender Jonathan dos Santos, Barcelona were clearly missing the cutting edge of Messi and midfielder Xavi, who started the game on the bench.

But Dutch winger Ibrahim Afellay almost levelled on 35 minutes when he sent a left-foot shot inches wide of the United goal from a tight angle.

United goalkeeper David de Gea was forced into his first meaningful save on 50 minutes, however, when he denied Pedro an equaliser.

Pedro, who scored the opening goal against United at Wembley, struck early from 12 yards, but De Gea reacted well to dive low and smother the ball.

De Gea, United’s £18.3m replacement for Edwin van der Sar, was fortunate not to gift Barcelona a goal on 61 minutes, though, when a poor clearance by the 20-year-old goalkeeper dropped straight at the feet of Isaac Cuenca 35 yards from goal.

Cuenca’s cross into the penalty area was wayward, however, and De Gea escaped being punished for his mistake.

Ferguson has admitted that the youngster must improve his physique to succeed in the Premier League, but his preference for punching rather than catching routine crosses is another area which will require attention.

De Gea’s decision to punch clear a second-half corner instead of grasping the ball was unusual considering he had time to collect the ball inside his 18 yard box.

The former Atletico Madrid keeper had no chance when it came to stopping Thiago’s equaliser on 71 minutes, however.

Ryan Giggs’s failure to cut out Carlos Carmona’s pass left Thiago with a free strike on goal from 20 yards and the 20-year-old took full advantage by guiding a right foot shot beyond the motionless De Gea.

Owen secured victory for United, though, when he beat Valdes after Cleverley had cut out a loose Sergio Busquets pass before creating the chance for the 31-year-old.

Owen then missed an open goal in the final minutes after being teed up by Mame Biram Diouf, but on this occasion, he got away with it.

Manchester United (4-4-2): De Gea; Rafael (Fabio 17), Evans, Vidic (Jones 77), Evra (Smalling 46); Nani, Cleverley, Anderson (Giggs 46), Young (Obertan 62); Rooney (Owen 46), Welbeck (Diouf 77). Subs: Lindegaard (g), Amos (g), Ferdinand, Carrick, Park, Berbatov, Macheda.

Barcelona (4-1-4-1): Valdes; Dos Santos, Busquets, Fontas (Lozano 74), Abidal (Balliu 74); Keita; Pedro (Espinosa 86), Iniesta, Thiago, Afellay (Cuenca 42); Villa (Carmona 62). Subs: Jose Pinto (g), Masip (g), Pique, Puyol, Xavi, Suarez, Riverola, Cabelino, Muniesa.

David Beckham shows Manchester United he can still kick it

David Beckham is 36, he seemingly spends half his life at 36,000 feet jetting from football match to personal appearance to royal wedding, yet as he showed against Manchester United in New Jersey on Wednesday, Goldenballs can still kick it.

Ji-sung Park may have walked away with the Most Valuable Player award at the end of the game, but there must have been a block vote from the South Korean fan club to swing that one as Beckham once again stole the show, even in a 4-0 defeat.

Two things were eminently predictable prior to Beckham’s outing for the MLS All-Stars against United.

Firstly, that he would speak of the ‘emotional’ experience of playing against the ‘greatest club in the world’ – Beckham has always been in the king of PR – and secondly, that the former England captain would play every minute as though it were his last.

Barring an unlikely return to the Premier League when his LA Galaxy contract expires later this year, Wednesday’s friendly in the Red Bull Arena is likely to be the last time Beckham shares a field with his former club.

He has already seen off his Class of ’92 contemporaries at United by watching the likes of Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes all announce their retirement over the past 12 months.

But there is no dimming of the light when it comes to Beckham. His dazzling golden boots during the All-Stars game were only matched by the glitter of his performance.

Let’s not kid anyone, though. Unless his continued stay in California is merely to secure the world’s first leg transplant in the global capital of nip and tuck, Beckham will run out of steam sooner rather than later.

The qualities that propelled him onto centre stage at United in the mid-1990s are still visible, however.

Beckham can still pick a pass, his crossing remains unmatched and the tenacity that once saw him dominate Paul Ince on his return to Old Trafford in a friendly with Inter Milan shortly after his controversial move to San Siro all remain part of the package.

And the radar is still fully functioning when it comes to shooting at goal from anywhere within 30 yards of the net.

United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard was forced to make two impressive saves in the first-half of Wednesday’s game to deny Beckham the goal celebration that would have instantly flashed around the globe and given the old man the headlines once again.

The irony of Beckham’s performance, with Scholes no longer around to dictate play for United, was that his experience, quality and calming authority is precisely what Sir Alex Ferguson’s team need at the heart of their midfield.

That ship has sailed, though, and there will be no emotional return to Old Trafford for the prodigal son.

Beckham did pay a visit to the United changing room after the game, greeting former team-mates and bear-hugging Ferguson as he left, but although he joked to waiting reporters that ‘He wants to sign me,’ when asked about his discussion with Ferguson, it was wishful thinking.

Isn’t it?