Significant SPFL Sky Deal Stalling
The Scottish Professional Football League’s (SPFL) proposed new broadcast deal with Sky Sports is reportedly in doubt due to an ongoing sponsorship row with one of the league’s top clubs, Glasgow Rangers FC.
According to a report in The Athletic, Rangers has requested a league meeting over the ongoing cinch sponsorship row before they sign the waiver letter needed to approve the contract.
The SPFL’s new and improved deal with Sky Sports has been in the pipeline for some months and would see more lives games on offer in an £150m deal. However, the new stumbling block is causing delays to negotiations, due to an issue with Rangers that dates back to 2021.
Rangers refused to advertise cinch’s logo due to the agreement conflicting with the club’s existing deal with cinch competitor Park’s Motor Group, a car dealership owned by Rangers chairman, Douglas Park.
The deal was renegotiated to reflect the absence of inventory from Rangers, but it controversially contained a clause which means Rangers will not be part of any future league sponsorship offerings until 2026.
Every club must sign a waiver letter before the increase from 48 games to 60 games can be ratified, and Rangers has yet to sign, preventing a deal from going through. The eleven other clubs in the league have all signed, but Rangers want to have the meeting regarding the cinch matter before committing.
The report states that if no solution is found, the SPFL could look to change the rules permanently rather than via a temporary waiver agreement.
Although Rangers wouldn’t want it to get to this stage, the club insist there are various conditions that need to be met, including discussions around cinch and Sky increasing the number of games.
The Athletic understands this correspondence has been in progress for some time, which can be seen by all other Premiership executives, but that there is yet to be any agreement.
Rangers have been vocal critics of the SPFL’s broadcast deal and the value it delivers but many clubs see the new terms as a positive.
The proposed deal will rise from £25m per season to over £29m, with Sky holding an option of an additional 20 league games to take it to a £37m package.
