Chapter Nine Hundred and Seventy First Will Be a Man

Some people say that seniority in English football is very serious.

This is absolutely true!

If a few years ago, when Terry, Lampard and other players were still young, when they first entered the first team, they would have to help their teammates wash socks and shine shoes, and they would have to treat the team boss with respect.

For example, Roy Keane of Manchester United taught Cristiano Ronaldo in this way.

This is true at the team level as well as at the club level.

The tradition of boss gatherings in England's top league has been around for a long time, and it almost catches up with the tradition of the home team coach inviting the visiting team coach to drink after the game.

But unlike the latter, which was gradually forgotten or even abandoned early, the top league boss summit has been passed down.

The establishment of the Premier League was negotiated at the boss summit.

The layoffs of the Premier League were also done at this meeting.

Even how to further tap business resources, how to develop overseas markets, how to attract more stars, these are all discussed at the boss summit.

The Premier League is just the facade of the boss summit, and CEO Richard Scudemore is more like a butler and spokesperson hired by the 20 bosses in the Premier League with an annual salary of nearly one million pounds, nothing more .

But even in the Premier League boss summit, there is also seniority ranking.

For example, the three teams that are newly promoted to the Premier League every year basically have no say.

God knows if they will drop back to the Championship after one season?

Therefore, the newly promoted boss has to properly play the role of a good baby, so that he can blend into it.

As for those like Southampton, who have just been promoted to the Premier League and called out to strike and withdraw from the Premier League, looking at the history of the Premier League chairman summit, it is the only one!

In the past, the right to speak at the Premier League Chairman's Summit was fully in the hands of five teams. They are the most traditional top five in England, that is, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds United.

But then Leeds United declined, and Newcastle gradually replaced them.

But unfortunately,

The magpie didn't live up to it, and soon fell too.

Over the past decade or so, teams such as Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United have changed owners one after another, and the management has also changed all over again. The right to speak at the chairman's summit is no longer as important as it used to be.

Today's Chairman's Summit is no longer the kind of one-word speech it used to be.

But relatively speaking, the strong teams still have the greatest influence, once controlling the rules of the Premier League game to a certain extent.

With the gradual rise of Manchester City, their influence in the Premier League chairman summit has also continued to increase.

In the past two or three years, the Saints have jumped from the original newly promoted to the upstart of the Premier League, and now they have become the standard bearer of the Premier League in Europe and even the world. Kenyon and Ron Gourley are both senior members of the Premier League Chairman's Summit. Therefore, the Saints' right to speak in the Chairman's Summit is becoming more and more important.

More importantly, the saints will be human.

For example John Stones.

Originally, the Saints had already signed the teenager, but as soon as they heard that Everton needed it, they directly loaned Stones to Everton.

During Stones' stay at Everton, the Saints did not charge even a penny for loan fees. Even when Stones was recalled, the Saints paid Everton a six-figure training fee. Loaned two young players to Everton for free.

Not only Everton, but other Premier League and English Championship teams, although the requirements for youth training players who want to rent the Saints will be relatively high, and some conditions will even be set, but the supporting services provided by the Saints are also quite good.

The reason why Watford, who was newly promoted from the Premier League this season, was able to be promoted from the British Championship is because of the loan of three Saints teenagers. Set up obstacles, just increase the repurchase clause, and let people go directly.

It is precisely because the saints know how to be human that their prestige in English football is also increasing day by day.

Today, at the Premier League chairman summit, the chief executives of Manchester United and Arsenal are newcomers, and Southampton has naturally become the team with the greatest say.

Together with Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Liverpool, they formed the first team in the Premier League.

This time, the reform of the Premier League was initiated by Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, supported by teams such as Southampton, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, and finally brought to the Premier League chairman summit for discussion and voting.

According to the rules of the Premier League chairman summit, as long as two-thirds of the members agree, the reform proposal will be considered passed.

Due to the importance of this meeting, the chairman of the FA, David Bernstein, and the CEO of the FA, as well as representatives of several other sponsors and important players in the English football industry were specially invited to attend.

However, they only have the right to observe, not the right to speak, let alone the right to vote.

The meeting began with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudemore taking the lead.

He first introduced the operation of the Premier League in the past season and his outlook for the coming season.

Among them, what attracts everyone's attention is that the Premier League will cooperate with Miracle Media to actively carry out the Premier League's pre-season overseas challenge. The main target is the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League.

But that clearly frustrates Abramovich.

You know, the Premier League currently cooperates very closely with Miracle Media.

The Saints, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Liverpool are all in the International Champions Cup, while Everton and Swansea are in invitational tournaments organized by Miracle Media.

Everyone knows that these are the biggest and most lucrative events.

However, as a veteran team in the Premier League, Chelsea was excluded. This also has a lot to do with Chelsea's wrong bet. Who told them to support Miracle Media's deadly rival RS?

Several teams that participated in the North American Invitational Tournament organized by RS Company, Chelsea and Milan, etc., failed to cooperate with Miracle Media. They could only watch their competitors make a lot of money time and time again, and salivated. in a hurry.

Today, the Premier League is going to launch pre-season games, although there are appearance fees, but very little, more for the promotion of the Premier League.

Although Chelsea has the title of the first group army, they have to be forced to participate in this kind of mid-lower team competition. Abramovich is indeed quite depressed.

But something is better than nothing, right?

Granovskia once calculated that missing the International Champions Cup will cost Chelsea at least 15 million euros in direct revenue per season, and if sponsorship and other potential revenues are included, the loss will be even more severe. .

Therefore, at this moment, Abramovich also had to think secretly in his heart, should he continue to fight with Yang Huan?

After introducing the preseason, Scudemore focused on the various budgets for this season. These are not too controversial, so they are basically swept away.

The real focus came later, when Scudemore proposed a reform plan for the Premier League.

This made everyone in the audience care.

After all, this is closely related to the interests of every team.

The entire reform plan is divided into three parts, one is the so-called European war reward system.

Scudemore reminded everyone present that the role of the European War in promoting the Premier League is quite obvious.

The poor performance in the European war is disgraceful to the world's number one league hat worn by the Premier League.

Therefore, he proposed that the Premier League allocate a part of its annual budget as a reward for the European competition, and distribute it according to the performance of each team in the European competition.

This one didn't meet much resistance.

The role of the European War in promoting the league is indeed obvious, and everyone agrees on this point.

If the Premier League's European competition points are not enough, resulting in the reduction of the number of entries, the damage to the Premier League brand value is also quite serious. Therefore, it is understandable to properly stimulate the participation of European competition teams*.

What's more, the rewards given by Scudemore are indeed quite a lot when they are concentrated in the hands of some teams, but they can be distributed to twenty teams, so there are not many.

With the cake getting bigger and bigger, everyone didn't pay much attention to this little bit of money.

For example, the previous season’s income was 50 million, but now the cake has grown bigger, and it can earn 80 million, but the Premier League said that it would be 78 million with a little less points, and the rest would be used as a reward for the European war to stimulate strong players. The team earns more points in the European war, and the league broadcast fee will be higher in the future.

Ever since, most teams agreed.

The same situation also appeared in the second issue, which is the allocation of broadcast sessions.

According to the plan of the Premier League, starting from 2016, a new Premier League broadcast contract will increase the number of live broadcasts from the current 154 to 168.

The extra 14 games will be arranged according to the plan of the broadcaster.

This is not to be resisted.

Sky TV and British Telecom are willing to auction the broadcast rights of the Premier League at such a high price. The purpose is to be able to select more games that fans like to watch, as well as some game schedules and other supporting matters.

If there is no accident, the 14 extra games will basically be for strong teams, especially for superstar-studded teams like the Saints.

But so what?

In the Premier League broadcast fee sharing plan, the number of live broadcasts only determines 25% of it, and when the strong dialogue has basically been sold out, the extra live broadcasts must be the strong teams and mid-lower teams. game between.

In other words, assuming that Southampton broadcasts eight more live broadcasts, there must be eight mid-lower teams that will follow suit.

What's more, the remaining other teams can also benefit from the remaining 75% of the broadcast fee.

Just imagine, 14 more games, with an average of more than 10 million pounds per game, that is 150 million pounds.

After sharing, each team can get a lot of money.

Therefore, for this distribution method of the Premier League, the twenty teams in the Premier League basically do not have much objection.

It can be said that from the beginning of the meeting to the present, the atmosphere has been pretty good.

Whether it is the reward system for the European competition or the increase in the number of broadcasts, the interests of the Premier League teams are very consistent with each other, so there is almost no controversy, and everyone raised their hands to support the approval.

But when it comes to the third topic, that is, the plan for adjusting the distribution of overseas copyrights, the problem becomes even bigger.

According to the current distribution model of overseas copyrights of the Premier League, the twenty teams distribute the broadcast fee income equally, and all teams have long been used to it.

But now, if the distribution model is reformed and distributed according to the local copyrights of the Premier League, in the case of a substantial increase in overseas copyrights, although the income of each team in the new contract still has a great increase, it is obviously not possible to call People are satisfied.

Especially the lower reaches of the Premier League.

Almost immediately after Scudmore finished speaking, they took the lead in attacking, believing that the series of reforms in the Premier League violated the principle of fair distribution in the Premier League.

Newcastle chairman Michael Ashley pointed the finger at the top-ranked teams to further widen the gap between rich and poor.