The Premier League’s radical announcement yesterday about adding an extra fixture to the calendar that would be staged overseas reflects a growing anxiety about the threat to its popularity in foreign markets, with its reach in China, potentially the greatest mass market, extending to only 0.02% of the population.
Despite regular claims that Premier League matches reap audiences of 1bn, yesterday’s proposals explode the hyperbole. "There is not a big overseas market," said an executive at one leading Premier League club. "People talk about it and the numbers of people interested but, in fact, it is very small. This is a way of driving interest. My view is that the Premier League has to develop to survive."
That accounts for the unanimous support among club chairmen for the plan that bears clear similarities to a proposal by the gridiron organizer, the National Football League. It has mooted the expansion of its season to 17 dates from the current 16 after the National Basketball Association took the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings to China to play two pre-season games in Beijing and Shanghai in October 2004 with enormous success.
Very little of the £625m income from the Premier League’s three-year overseas deal comes from China and it is fearful enough to sell itself short there in return for long-term growth. In an attempt to build the brand with new partners abroad the league sold its broadcast rights for mainland China to a pay-tv company, Win TV, which has only 300,000 subscribers. Premier League executives hope taking the mountain to Mohammed will help their competition compete with the US leviathans.
Viewers eyes on Capello
Premier League sources insist that yesterday’s announcement was in no way an attempt to steal the Football Association’s thunder after the success of the England team in the opening game of Fabio Capello’s stewardship. The FA was diplomatically insouciant about the Premier League’s designs, probably still basking in the warm glow of the BBC’s viewing figures released yesterday afternoon. The peak audience of 10.6m was a phenomenal figure for a midweek friendly fixture. By contrast, the most ever to watch the team of Sven-Goran Eriksson in his first 12 months in charge was 11.6m, for a competitive World Cup qualifier only four days after his greatest success, the 5-1 win over Germany in Munich. Capello and the FA can also be gratified that the vast majority stuck with it: the average audience over the 90 minutes was 10m. Most pleased about the Capello effect, though, will be ITV and Setanta, who take over the rights to England matches from the BBC next season through their four-year, £420m deal.
FA focus on skills
Even if, as one football analyst yesterday warned, the move of Premier League clubs into overseas territories will prove a serious threat to international football, the FA continues to make plans for a brighter future for the England team. Its director of football development, Sir Trevor Brooking, showed three government ministers round a city academy in Willesden yesterday to propound the virtues of the £6m FA Tesco Skills Program that aims to provide 1m youngsters aged five to 11 with access to specialist skills training. The program, which benefits from £3m of government cash, will also provide retired former Premier League stars with a first step on the coaching ladder.
Sailing close to drug ban
Sailing, Britain’s most successful Olympic sport, is under threat from the nation’s anti-doping program. There was brouhaha at the revelations that three sailors face a ban if they miss one more drugs test but British medal hopes would be more disrupted if they are suspended. One leading Olympian revealed yesterday that there are two sailors who are on "two strikes" of the three-strike policy. Sailors are the least likely to benefit from performance-enhancing agents but the need to chase suitable weather around the world makes them the most likely to miss random tests.
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