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Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 11:06 pm
by Heisen
SpoilerShow
From BBC Sport:

Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani has called for the creation of a 'Premier League 2' to help Championship clubs receive more television revenue.

Leeds earned £7.5m in 2017 under the EFL television deal, compared to a guaranteed £100m for the team that finishes bottom of the Premier League.

Six of Leeds' 12 league games this season have been moved for TV coverage.

"We lose money and we are creating a show that is high-interest for everybody," said Radrizzani.

Last season, 19 of Leeds' 46 league games were selected for Sky TV coverage, which Radrizzani says puts the club at a disadvantage.

The Italian says clubs like Leeds being "watched by 500,000-600,000 people live on Sky" but only getting £2m-£2.5m from the league for having their games televised - the rest made up via the EFL - "actually penalises us".

"We're always on TV, maybe more than 20 times. It doesn't work," he added.

Leeds are third in the Championship, with 23 points from 12 games, but the Yorkshire club have not been in the top flight of English football since being relegated in 2003-04.

Clubs relegated from the Premier League currently receive £75m in parachute payments over the subsequent two seasons if they remain in a lower division.

Radrizzani says he is yet to discuss the idea of a 'Premier League 2' with other owners of Championship clubs, but believes there is a consensus for change.

"I think the other chairmen would love to open a conversation," he said.

"The time is getting ready to consider what to do to move forward so we don't have a crisis every two years when a club go bankrupt or changes ownership every other year."

Radrizzani 'has rejected Leeds offers'
Radrizzani, who became sole owner of Leeds in May 2017, says has received multiple takeover approaches for the club, but values it at "double what I invested in it".

Speaking at the Leaders Business Summit in London, he said he was not interested in selling and wants Leeds to become one of the "top-eight brands in the Premier League".

It was reported that Radrizzani, who is also the owner of sports broadcaster Eleven Sports, paid £45m to buy Leeds.

He initially obtained a 50% stake in January 2017 before buying out compatriot Massimo Cellino's remaining 50% three months later. He went on to purchase the Elland Road ground in June, bringing it back into the club's hands after 13 years.

In August 2017, Radrizzani said he was committed to investing £100m into the club


Interesting concept, but essentially the Championship is already the 'Premier League 2' in all but name.

I do however agree that a change is coming in the near future in restructuring the English League system. One idea I saw that I didn't think was too bad was to make the 'Premier League' smaller, i.e. 10/12 teams. The 'Premier League 2' would then consist of the lower half of the Premier League/top half of the Championship, and so on so forth. You could then perhaps have the winners of 'Premier League 2' and the League Cup granted a Europa League place and give the winners of the FA Cup a Champions League spot, with only the top 3 of the Premier League gaining the automatic CL positions. Thus re-establishing the cup competitions as a priority aswell as seeing a fairer distribution of TV money (at least in theory).

The idea has it flaws but I do agree something needs to happen to try to address the inbalance financially, as it simply isn't sustainable in its current model, and I feel the top 7/8 of the Prem compete in a league of their own anyway. May aswell shake it up.

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 6:06 am
by Bodacious Benny
I don't think there's any way we're going to see a smaller premier league.

In terms of PL2, the key thing for me is addressing the financial gulf between the PL and the Championship. It doesn't really matter what we call the championship, but for a team finishing bottom of the PL to get 10x as much money than the team winning the championship is mental, parachute payments should also be reduced and money redistributed more fairly.

The championship probably is a more entertaining league than the PL, it's certainly more competitive and as strong as it's ever been. The FA would do well to build on that as it's in the long-term interest of football in this country.

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:37 am
by overseasTOON
F*** Leeds.

F*** Leeds right in the face.

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:20 am
by jpg
Bad idea. Never been a fan of sequels.

Although I did prefer Terminator 2 to the first film.

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:05 am
by Heisen
Bodacious Benny wrote:
Thu Oct 11, 2018 6:06 am
I don't think there's any way we're going to see a smaller premier league.

In terms of PL2, the key thing for me is addressing the financial gulf between the PL and the Championship. It doesn't really matter what we call the championship, but for a team finishing bottom of the PL to get 10x as much money than the team winning the championship is mental, parachute payments should also be reduced and money redistributed more fairly.

The championship probably is a more entertaining league than the PL, it's certainly more competitive and as strong as it's ever been. The FA would do well to build on that as it's in the long-term interest of football in this country.
Agreed, but since The PL has the FA by the balls, what will be done to stop it? It is the TV companies who dictate the payments, until they believe the Championship is a league worth paying for it's not going to happen.

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:43 am
by Colly
Exactly, and the huge amount of overseas money coming in now isn't there to watch 2nd tier football.

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:40 pm
by krully
jpg wrote:
Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:20 am
Bad idea. Never been a fan of sequels.

Although I did prefer Terminator 2 to the first film.
Aliens, too

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 5:52 pm
by Chappy
Gay

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 10:53 am
by TBC
krully wrote:
Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:40 pm
jpg wrote:
Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:20 am
Bad idea. Never been a fan of sequels.

Although I did prefer Terminator 2 to the first film.
Aliens, too
LOTR The Two Towers & The Dark Knight also

Re: Leeds Owner Calls For 'Premier League 2'

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 3:10 pm
by Remember Colo
Can say that there's too big a gap between the PL and Championship, but if you were to make the PL smaller, you'd simply change where the gap existed. Ultimately (most) viewers want to watch the best players and teams play, and there's only so much time for people to watch football, which in the caps how much market value there is to go around.