Arsene Wenger has hit out at the Premier League for allowing television too much control over the scheduling of Premier League games.
In a measured but obviously well-thought out broadside, he suggested that some teams were being allowed an advantage by the way their games were being selected for TV.
“I believe the Premier League has to make sure there’s more fairness in the schedules,” he said. “I don’t believe the Premier League has played, in the last year, a very fair role in the distribution of the fixtures.
“They have sold their soul to television, television is influenced by some clubs to choose the fixtures, and some clubs get an advantage. Is it Sky or is it ESPN? Because they have an influence there from the clubs directly. And the Premier League should be a much bigger barrier than they are in front of that.”
Wenger refused to be drawn on which clubs he meant, but made it clear that he isn’t alone in his thinking.
“I do not want to go personally on any club, I just think that when things are repeated they are not a coincidence any more. In England it’s very difficult to say what you feel but I’m not the only manager who thinks that and I think there is a real problem there.
“The Premier League must decide what is fair and not fair. At the moment they don’t. It’s the television who decides because the contracts are not done in a way which protects the fairness of the competition.
“You cannot have decisive games, one team playing on Friday, then on Tuesday, and another team playing on Sunday then on Tuesday. That doesn’t work. You can convince me it is right – I can tell you, working for 30 years in football, it is not right. It’s not fair.”
Arsenal’s game against Bolton, originally scheduled for Jan 31st, has been moved back a day following ESPN’s scheduling of the FA Cup 4th round-tie against Aston Villa on Sunday 29th.
who will the red tops say this is an attack on? Mancini? Ferguson? ‘Arry?
Actually come to think of it can we please start referring to Twitcher as “the defendant”? I mean it’ll only last as long as it takes for him to become “the prisoner”
They’ll probably say it’s an attack on the English game itself.and then something about wenger being a whining foreigner I suspect.
there are so many issues in the premier league that get brushed under the carpet,but that’s mostly because the FA are weak and disorganised. too much money and not enough regulation.but that’s kind of what the fans have been asking for I guess.as long as the billionaires keep lining up to buy our clubs and spending their ‘well earned cash’ on not so superstar players. Our beautifully crooked game.
Both manc scum have no choice but to play on Sunday because there on channel 5 on Thursday haha
Wish he’s belt up. Did he complain about refs, injuries, TV scheduling etc. when Arsenal were winning titles? No. Were things any different then to what they are now? No. Wenger spends all his time deflecting issues away from the real problem, his crap, one-man squad.
Did Rafa Benitez rant profoundly on Man Utd and SAF when they were challenging for top honours and very likely to win the Premier League? Yes.
What does Arsene have to GAIN from actually saying these things when there has been NO CONTROVERSIES surrounding Arsenal at the moment?
Go home Spurs fan. You need to stop sucking your own dick and start reading.
I just told you what he has to gain, deflection. It’s only because you’re such a fucking moron you’re too dumb to see it.
fuck of you fucking tottenham cunt
I see his point, rules with broadcasting and the the supposed randomness of the competition draws need to evolve because the TV companies are getting clever with their contracts, especially with the big games.
Wenger tells it like it is. Hopefully other managers will support his cause.
Television revenue is what is seperating the EPL from all the other leagues. He maybe right about it’s influence in scheduling but I guarrantee if it came down to keeping the tv revenue or normal scheduling, the clubs will all choose the former.
But of course it’d be great footballing-wise if a good balance more favourable towards the latter was struck, for quite obvious reasons.
Does not really mean that the TV schedulers are fully excused by the money thrown around, but the money thrown around really does matter.
The problem is that the economic model of the Premier League is entirely dependent on television revenue. None of the small clubs would be able to exist if it weren’t for television revenues.
I don’t think small La Liga clubs can nod to that statement.
They receive incredibly poor money from TV revenue due to individual deals, and not a collective one. Barca and Madrid each earn more than 50m above the 3rd best-earning club in the competition one or two years ago, and it just seems quite shocking that this continues to happen in Spain other than those two clubs being too greedy to give up their vision for an intense monopoly (or at least a duopoly at the moment).
To get their deals Barca and Real Madrid have had to agree to playing matches anywhere between midday (in the full heat of the day) and midnight. It’s not just the PL has that gives away their power to the TV men, all TV companies expect control over the match schedule for the sport that “they” offer their viewers.
“Exist” and “Compete” are two different words, but that kinda money is still an incredibly valuable source of income for those struggling clubs.
Tbh I’m not sure what he’s talking about. As far as I remember, we’ve always had a decent amount of time in between games, except for QPR and Fulham, but we weren’t the only ones then. City, United and Chelsea also had games just 48/72 hours apart.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/15059636.stm
88% of Wigan’s TOTAL revenue is from television rights: http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/10/revolution-will-be-televised.html
You think they are going to stand up to ESPN? No way.
and the other 12%? pies?
or do they sell rugby league memorabilia at the DW?
.Uncle Joes Mintballs make up the rest of the revenue
Unsurprisingly no mention this afternoon on Sky. Just constant reruns of twitchy going on about ow they can’t afford to compete on wages with Man CIty. Easier for Sky and the media to pump up non stories like that than deal with a real problem of course.
Uhhhhhhh, wake me up for swans.
[…] between some clubs and the TV companies were being exploited to give those teams an advantage. He said: I don’t believe the Premier League has played, in the last year, a very fair role in the […]
I think Wenger is wrong here. Television is the current best way to grow Arsenal’s fan base, Arsenal’s profits, Arsenal’s wages, and Arsenal’s transfer budget. If the big broadcasters are rearranging Arsenal’s schedule to show them more often it just means more exposure for the club. I havenoticed that Arsenal is on the TV more often this year, and I for one am happy for it -Wenger should be too.
Traditional football times were 15.00 Saturday and 19.30 Wednesday. Any time a TV Company forces a team to start a game any closer than 67.5 hours to the start of another scheduled game (the time between Wednesday night and Saturday arvo kickoffs) should have to pay that club a penalty payment for their trouble. 50,000 quid per full hour below 67.5 would be good. So move a game from Saturday to Sunday – no charge if the next game is 19.30 on Wednesday, but move it from Saturday arvo (the default) to Monday night at 19.30 and you pay that… Read more »
http://thefootballasylum.com/german-bundesliga/japan-land-of-the-rising-stars/
Bottom line is you dont want tv to dominate premier league if that happens be prepared for ref blowing the whistle after every 10 mins of the game so that the broadcasters can show their ads more regulalrly. I know this wouldnt happen but football is managed by cunts like blatter he wouldnt mind doing that.