TOP Premier League clubs are looking to the USA for a cash boost after predictions of a big income rise from Uefa’s Champions League reboot fell short.
Club chiefs had been told to expect a 40-50 per cent increase in the TV value of the 2024 change to a single league and extending the competition from the current 125 matches to 189.
Jake Humphrey, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen were BT Sport’s team for Liverpool’s defeat vs Real Madrid but TV cash will rise less than hoped
But the English contract — the most lucrative, to be split between BT, Amazon and the BBC — only went up by 17.5 per cent, from £1.2billion over three seasons to £1.41bn.
There was a larger jump in France but the lofty claims now look unlikely to be fulfilled, with forecasts of an overall maximum rise of about 30 per cent to £3.35bn per season.
That is why Uefa and the clubs are pinning their hopes on DOUBLING the value of the US rights, currently owned in a joint deal by Paramount and Univision worth £122m per year.
But Uefa and its agent, the Relevent Sports Group run by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, believe they can get a six-year deal worth up to £1.7bn over the line.
Talks have already begun with broadcasters including NBC, ESPN, Amazon, Fox, Warner Bros Discovery — who are merging with BT Sport in the UK — and Apple.
Uefa expects to announce the winner early next season.
It comes after Chelsea led the Covid loss-makers with a deficit of £205.7m in 2020-21.
Analysts Vysyble said the 20 Prem clubs had lost a combined £1.05bn in that season, with League chiefs estimating the total Covid bill will be at least £2bn.
VAULTY SERVICE
BRITISH pole vault champ Harry Coppell is the latest to suffer from the airport chaos — after his training poles were destroyed en route to the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Coppell posted a picture from the US with seven of his poles, all of which were bent.
BIGWIG CRAIG’S POISON SHOCK
FORMER British Olympic chief Sir Craig Reedie says he was not worried about Russian hacking — until he discovered the link to the poisoning of dissident spy Sergei Skripal.
Skripal survived an attempt by GRU officers to murder him with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2016.
Two years later, Reedie’s home in Scotland was visited by five officers of the National Crime Agency to run the rule over all his communications equipment following the “Fancy Bears” Russian-led hack of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which he ran at the time.
Sir Craig revealed in his new autobiography “Delivering London’s Olympic Dream” that “one of the suspected hackers” was Ruslan Boshirov.
Boshirov, whose real name is Anotoliy Chepiga, was later unmasked as “the same GRU thug who was one of the men charged with the poisoning of the Skripals.” A lucky escape.
THE demand to “keep politics out of football” has raged in recent years.
But, in Italy, there are some who now want to keep football out of politics — after former Roma and Azzurri midfielder Damiano Tommasi, 48, became mayor of Verona.
MOUTH WATCH
ENGLAND’S rugby stars will be part of a mouthguard project aimed at identifying and preventing concussive injuries in the sport.
Eddie Jones’ Red Rose squad — as well as Premiership Rugby — have agreed to conduct the season-long programme using the mouthguards provided by Prevent Biometrics.
Chips in the safety equipment will allow scientists to monitor the magnitude and frequency of head impacts and to assess the consequences on the brains of players.
