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Leeds United & The Breakaway Championship Talk Nonsense – “Call BS From The Opening Sentence”

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Last weekend reports came out in the press suggesting that Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani was ready to go to war with the EFL over the new television rights broadcasting deal.

The suggestion from the Sun was that basically we were leading with 15 Championship sides to secure a far better deal when it came to financial renumeration in the future owing to the current unfairness in the existing deal.

Allied to a breakaway threat if we didn’t get our way.

It was no surprise to see Leeds linked with the likes of Aston Villa and Derby County as Radrizzani has already spoken about television money owing to his other business dealings and knowledge of how rights work in the game, and he hasn’t been shy in saying that the current system is unfair and more of a Premier League setup should be the way forward, where all clubs get a bottom line share, but success and television involvement owing to how fans are inconvenienced, gets its proper reward.

I noticed this piece on fellow Vital site Vital Villa the other day and I can’t disagree with my fellow Mike’s thoughts on the subject, even if his choice of colours in football leaves a fair bit to be desired.

I agree completely on his thoughts, I don’t see how a Championship Mk2 is a viable alternative here when you consider all of the ramifications of breaking with the EFL and the Football Association.

“A – it’s the Sun.
B – as we’ve seen from Financial Fair Play grumbles, the member clubs have the say and you can split from the Prem/EFL and Football Association but how competitive is a league of five where that’s your lot, forever – if you break away there’s no promotion, there’s no relegation, there’s no Europe and dare I say, you would naturally rescind the contracts of your existing players, so for those in international teams or with international hopes, they aren’t going to be staying are they. So how competitive, and how broadcastable (and what could we demand £ wise) would a kick about on Vital Villa be is basically the outcome of that situation in my mind.
C – it’s the Sun.
D – it’s the Sun.
E – it’s the Sun.”

The Premier League got away with the rebrand because it wasn’t a full breakaway in the true sense, it was a rebrand. There’s no appetite or demand for a second competing pyramid of football, so even as a threat I very much doubt anyone has used it in negotiations because it would betray their own lack of understanding and desperation and ruin their own position and argument at the table.

He goes on to rightly point out that the EFL’s motives for moving less glamourous games into the midweek slots so the better looking matches take place of a weekend have been well established with their own words on the topic, so with the original report claiming that clubs were frustrated and felt mislead about red button coverage and streaming services because it might lead to lower crowds for Tuesday and Wednesday based games – well, that’s the exact thing the EFL aren’t bothered about and the exact reason why they are promoting streaming. Attend of a weekend and sit in front of the TV on a weeknight is their attitude for the future of football.

As ever, fans are in reality just a smell on the bottom of the authorities shoes and exist to be pumped for money and if they’re inconvenienced in the process, tough.

The full piece is definitely worth a read and I give thanks for permission to nick a bit of it.

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