Scottish FA Joins TV Rights Row
The Scottish Football Association is the latest governing body to criticise the panel recommendations over changes to the Listed Events ruling which governs whether certain sports events must be shown free-to-air television.
A Department of Culture, Media and Sport review led by former FA executive director David Davies has recommended that home and away football qualifiers for the home nations should be listed.
Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith stated: ‘If the revenue stream is not there then it’s going to have a disastrous effect on the game.’
He also hinted that he would like to see the SFA compensated if any future deal resulted in a financial shortfall.
The recommendations also included England’s home Ashes Tests returning to free-to-air television from 2016 while Wimbledon tennis, golf’s Open and Welsh Six Nations matches in Wales fall into the same category.
However, the Winter Olympics, flat racing’s showpiece, the Epsom Derby, and rugby league’s Challenge Cup final have been removed.
The addition of away football qualifiers has come as a surprise and will cause further dismay for the Scottish FA.
Smith said any reduction in revenue would dramatically reduce the SFA’s investment in grassroots football and harm the game in Scotland.
‘That’s why we’ve gone with satellite. It’s nothing to do with depriving supporters from seeing football. It seems like a great idea to say your games should be free-to-air.
‘It sounds like you’re really considering the public, but it would have serious financial repercussions in terms of income that we bring in to the SFA.
‘The biggest part of it in terms of finance is the development of the game. We work along with government and they realise that the more kids we have involved in football, playing the game, the better it will be for football, for health and fitness levels.
‘It would have a massive impact. We know from the negotiations we’ve had recently that terrestrial stations can’t compete with satellite stations in terms of the funding that’s required to take the game forward.
‘If the BBC or STV make a similar offer to the money that’s paid by satellite broadcasters then there’s not a problem. It’s only a bad thing if we lose revenue from it.’
The SFA’s current four-year rights deal with the satellite broadcaster Sky Sports is worth about £60m and includes live Scottish Cup matches in addition to coverage of Scotland’s home European Championship and World Cup qualifying matches.
