http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/ki...id=541263.html
So the Coca Cola Championship play-off between Derby County and West Bromwich Albion is today at the Wembley Stadium and the prizes on offer - next season in the Premiership as well as such a great amount of cash - will make both sides come out with full guns blazing.
Most of you lads are probably not aware, but the Championship is the 4th most watched league in Europe on TV as well as attendance wise (after EPL, Bundesliga, and La Liga). Some of the football, although more physical than Premiership is really intense and exciting. I remember seeing some of the action in the playoff between West Brom and Wolverhampton Wanderers and the match kept me interested a lot as teams battled it out like no tomorrow and the quality of play was superb despite the fact that it is the 2nd tier in English football.
I predict Derby County returning to the Premiership since 2001 or 2002 with a probably 2-1 win as I am really getting bored of West Brom coming and going each season
Two days ago Liverpool FC were involved in European club football's most prestigious fixture. But on Monday two other English sides play for stakes which eclipse the money on offer in the UEFA Champions League final.
€90m prize
It is nothing new to say that the promotion play-off final that decides the last place in the following season's Premier League is worth an incredible amount of cash, but a record English television deal for 2007/08 means that Derby County FC and West Bromwich Albion FC will be competing at Wembley for an incredible estimated pot of close to €90m. According to the Sports Business Group at consultants Deloitte and Touche, either Derby or West Brom will pick up around €44m from the new Premier League television deal for next season, not to mention up to €15m in extra sponsorship and ticket sales, and even if they then finish bottom and are relegated two guaranteed €16m 'parachute payments' over the next couple of seasons will still be theirs to cushion their fall.
New deal
To put that into perspective, the average television revenue per club in the second level Championship is under €2m, still one of the biggest sums in Europe, while Liverpool FC's total income from winning the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League was roughly €30m. With the sort of money available just for finishing bottom, no wonder the top Premier League clubs, picking up even more, have been the dominant force in the UEFA Champions League this term, as all four entrants made the last 16 and a record-equalling three the semi-finals. And that was before the new improved €4 billion deal for next three seasons; currently it is the top teams who make around €90m from the Premier League while four clubs had to settle for less than €30m.
'Battering ram'
How the money is made is simple; to watch all live televised matches next season, more than 100 in all, fans must subscribe to both Sky Sports and new rights holders Setanta Sports, which under current rates would cost a combined fee of more than €70 a month. Sky Sports already have well over five million sport subscribers, not to mention the pubs and clubs forking out even higher fees to entice customers with live pictures. British Sky Broadcasting's major shareholder Rupert Murdoch considers exclusive sport the “battering ram” to establishing pay television, and the original €90m annual deal he struck with the newly-formed Premier League in 1992 turned his satellite broadcaster from a loss-maker into one of the most profitable companies in Britain.
Overseas interest
On top of that are the overseas rights, which will alone be worth about €15m a year to even the lowliest Premier League club, boosted by the continuing surge in interest in Asia. The influx of some of the world’s best players on the back of increasing revenue has only escalated that attraction, the prestige and wealth of English football having also been incentives for the purchase of Premier League clubs by wealthy foreign investors. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore mused: "We have a cosmopolitan approach to players and a cosmopolitan approach to ownership and that is paying off.“
Comparison
Shared out
Meanwhile, in Spain and Italy although the biggest clubs have media income to match the top English sides, the money is not shared out as equally as in the Premier League. Therefore it is no surprise that the list of the world's richest clubs compiled by Forbes magazine, which is topped by Manchester United FC, has ten English sides in the top 25, compared with four from Germany and Italy.
Huge stakes
€90m prize
It is nothing new to say that the promotion play-off final that decides the last place in the following season's Premier League is worth an incredible amount of cash, but a record English television deal for 2007/08 means that Derby County FC and West Bromwich Albion FC will be competing at Wembley for an incredible estimated pot of close to €90m. According to the Sports Business Group at consultants Deloitte and Touche, either Derby or West Brom will pick up around €44m from the new Premier League television deal for next season, not to mention up to €15m in extra sponsorship and ticket sales, and even if they then finish bottom and are relegated two guaranteed €16m 'parachute payments' over the next couple of seasons will still be theirs to cushion their fall.
New deal
To put that into perspective, the average television revenue per club in the second level Championship is under €2m, still one of the biggest sums in Europe, while Liverpool FC's total income from winning the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League was roughly €30m. With the sort of money available just for finishing bottom, no wonder the top Premier League clubs, picking up even more, have been the dominant force in the UEFA Champions League this term, as all four entrants made the last 16 and a record-equalling three the semi-finals. And that was before the new improved €4 billion deal for next three seasons; currently it is the top teams who make around €90m from the Premier League while four clubs had to settle for less than €30m.
'Battering ram'
How the money is made is simple; to watch all live televised matches next season, more than 100 in all, fans must subscribe to both Sky Sports and new rights holders Setanta Sports, which under current rates would cost a combined fee of more than €70 a month. Sky Sports already have well over five million sport subscribers, not to mention the pubs and clubs forking out even higher fees to entice customers with live pictures. British Sky Broadcasting's major shareholder Rupert Murdoch considers exclusive sport the “battering ram” to establishing pay television, and the original €90m annual deal he struck with the newly-formed Premier League in 1992 turned his satellite broadcaster from a loss-maker into one of the most profitable companies in Britain.
Overseas interest
On top of that are the overseas rights, which will alone be worth about €15m a year to even the lowliest Premier League club, boosted by the continuing surge in interest in Asia. The influx of some of the world’s best players on the back of increasing revenue has only escalated that attraction, the prestige and wealth of English football having also been incentives for the purchase of Premier League clubs by wealthy foreign investors. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore mused: "We have a cosmopolitan approach to players and a cosmopolitan approach to ownership and that is paying off.“
Comparison
Shared out
Meanwhile, in Spain and Italy although the biggest clubs have media income to match the top English sides, the money is not shared out as equally as in the Premier League. Therefore it is no surprise that the list of the world's richest clubs compiled by Forbes magazine, which is topped by Manchester United FC, has ten English sides in the top 25, compared with four from Germany and Italy.
Huge stakes
Most of you lads are probably not aware, but the Championship is the 4th most watched league in Europe on TV as well as attendance wise (after EPL, Bundesliga, and La Liga). Some of the football, although more physical than Premiership is really intense and exciting. I remember seeing some of the action in the playoff between West Brom and Wolverhampton Wanderers and the match kept me interested a lot as teams battled it out like no tomorrow and the quality of play was superb despite the fact that it is the 2nd tier in English football.
I predict Derby County returning to the Premiership since 2001 or 2002 with a probably 2-1 win as I am really getting bored of West Brom coming and going each season
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