Manchester United have confirmed that they offered to meet the £25.5m option clause for Carlos Tevez and offered him a contract that would have made him one of the club's highest paid players but he has turned the offer down and will be leaving the club.
I liked the report the other day which said he wasn't going to join Liverpool out of "respect" for United's fans. Which is presumably why he's set to join their great chums at Eastlands instead. I'm sure the money has nothing to do with it.
SKY and ESPN are set to split the Setanta package between them and this is a fucking joke all because of EU rules about Sky. Who the hell has ESPN in England ? Its only on SKY not Virgin TV and even then a seperate sport package excluding the ESPN classics channel of course which is part of the sports deal. Am a sick of EU bastards coming up with rules on how UK TV should be done and after it left an Irish broadcaster with rights to the ENGLISH national team and English Premier League...it leaves us with an American network getting PL rights. Fuck knows where the ENG rights will go because Setanta will lose them too am sure. ENGLISH RIGHTS FOR ENGLISH NETWORKS ffs
That's annoying me too. That's yet more money we all need to spend to see TV games if it goes to ESPN. An American broadcaster with the rights to top-level football - crazy. Did anyone just watch the Confederations Cup games? Started out: 1. Brazil (6) 2. Italy (3) 3. Egypt (3) 4. USA (0) Three-nil wins for USA and Brazil means USA went second by one goal and go through. Absolutely amazing. Clint Dempsey got the decisive goal as he so often does.
^ Italy were poor winners in 2006 and flopped at 2008 so I fully expect to enjoy seeing them crash n burn in 2010. Brazil has come good under Dunga after a rocky start and will probably land him his 2nd major trophy as manager this summer...WC I doubt though. I want to see Brazil vs. Spain in Confed final
ESPN buys Setanta's Premier League rights. They will have 46 games next season and 23 for the next three seasons after that. They have an agreement with Sky to carry what will most likely be a new channel but haven't yet spoken about Freeview, Virgin Media or BT Vision. The SPL have also ended their contract with Setanta.
Well I just hope they get Setanta's graveyard games so I don't too bad about seeing barely any of them.
^They have bought the 46 games they would have had this coming season - specifically 23 Monday night games and 23 Saturday evening games. After that, they have just the Saturday evening games. They are packages C (Saturdays) and D (Mondays). Sky have packages A (Sunday 4pm), B (Sunday 1pm) and E (Saturday 1pm). Basically this means that for every set of fixtures, Sky get two picks, then Setanta get two picks then Sky get another one.
Setanta go in to administration. Just checked, the Setanta channels are gone but Liverpool, Arsenal, Rangers and Celtic's channels are still broadcasting.
With all the Setanta channels gone and soon the company to be well gone too, I do wonder what the FA will do with the ENG rights. Theres that away game to Ukraine plus friendlies against Holland & Slovenia to come which were supposed to be LIVE on Setanta... I somehow doubt The FA will be allowed to sell the rights to ESPN
^Why not ? ESPN haven't done anything. The England games and coverage of the FA Cup seem to come as a package. I suspect Sky would love to get the England games back.
With all the Setanta channels gone and soon the company to be well gone too, I do wonder what the FA will do with the ENG rights. Theres that away game to Ukraine plus friendlies against Holland & Slovenia to come which were supposed to be LIVE on Setanta... I somehow doubt The FA will be allowed to sell the rights to ESPN so look like SKY can be cheeky and pay a little less to nab them and the EURO 2012 rights. Though with F1 about to fold, BBC might be wise to pull the plug on F1 and use the rights to buy ENG rights again so both everyone can see them but thats never going to happen. I would also assume that Sky will give everyone on the Setanta package ESPN instead and the same goes for Virgin customers once a deal is done between Virgin & ESPN....OMG got to listen to annoying Americans commentate of the matches (SPOTKICK) (OFFENCE) I hope ESPN realise that a lot of people probably won't bother since most people I know got Setanta for the ENG rights more than PL rights. I wonder what wil happen to the rights for... * Europa League * The FA Cup * Football League Games that were going to Setanta
^Setanta didn't have any Football League rights. Those are shared from this season by Sky and the BBC.
When did Setanta have the UEFA Cup/Europa League? ITV and five have had that package for a while now.
That's incorrect. The deal for the next three seasons is with the BBC and Sky. Sky have 65 games, the BBC have 10 plus highlights. The deal also included the Carling Cup - the BBC will show one semi-final and the final. As for the Europa League - the details are a bit muddy. With the UEFA Cup, at least, there was no exclusive package up until after the group stage. ITV had the rights to all UEFA Cup matches after that but up to and including the group stage, the rights to matches were sold individually by the home teams in each match. I believe ITV had a deal with Spurs to show all of their home matches and they and Five would buy up individual matches. For the Europa League - UEFA did have a deal with ITV, Five and Setanta whereby in each game week, Five would have first pick of the matches and would broadcast the final. The concept of home teams selling individual matches has been abandoned.
BBC thats cool though wish they would of spent money on ENG rights. I hope Sky picks up the ENG rights.
Right now, as far as the main competitions go the deals are: FA Premier League - Sky (92 live games increasing to 115 in 2010-11, extended highlights of all non-ESPN games), ESPN (46 live games, decreasing to 23 in 2010-11), BBC (Highlights) FA Cup - ITV (2 live games per round, 1 semi final, final all live, highlights) Carling Cup - Sky (two live games per round, one semi final, final), BBC (one semi final and the final live, highlights) Football League - Sky (65 live games plus all Play-off matches live), BBC (10 live games, highlights) UEFA Champions League - Sky (all Tuesday night and all but one Wednesday night games live), ITV (first choice of Wednesday night games live, Highlights) UEFA Europa League - Five (first choice of all Thursday night games live), ITV (second choice of all Thursday night games) and a third partner yet to be found. Scottish Premier League - Currently unknown. Scottish FA Cup - Sky (one game from all rounds live). England Internationals - ITV (all home competitive games and all away friendly games live). Scotland Internationals - Sky (all competitive games live). Right now, the full rights to the Scottish League Cup and the Blue Square Premier are unclear as are the partial rights to the England Internationals, the FA Cup and the Europa League. There is also the issue of Setanta's deals with the various foreign leagues they held and other sports such as Golf, UFC (UFC terminated their contract today and have said they will announce a new UK broadcast partner in time for thei next event), Boxing (David Haye, for instance, had an exclusive contract with them) etc.
I'd like to get back to what you lot think each team should do in the summer transfer window so how about Everton who will be pushing for a top 4 place next season... Man City want to buy Lescott for £15 million or so and at first I would think Moyes is crazy to sell him but I guess there is a way it would make sense. He's 27 so in his peak both as a player and as a price tag and with that money he could buy 2 defenders to replace him. I was thinking the likes of Steven Taylor & David Wheater who both might want a quick return to the PL and have a strong partnership at U21 level so they would settle down together easily. Yobo and Jagielka in there too gives them a strong defence. Rumors are they could lose there right back cover Jabcoson is it ? but if they buy Taylor & Wheater then along with Yobo they can all play right back so no need to waste there limited funds. Moyes need cover for left back so Shorey on the cheap might be a decent move. Everton's Midfield is pretty strong and I don't think they should waste money on that Stephen M'Bia when they have the likes of Arteta, Neville, Osman, Cahill, Felaini, Gosling and Rodwell...Rodwell for me is at his best in the middle of the park. What Everton need is cover in a natural winger who can play either wing and for me I would go for U21 star Adam Johnson or Aiden McGeady. Strikers is where the biggest shake up needs doing IMO, the likes of Vaughan and Anchiebe should be left to go out on loan with only James Vaughan really having any chance of returning because Victor Anchibe is poor at this level. Baxter might as well stay but he's 2 years from commanding a regular position but luckily they have a proven PL goal scorer in Yakubu. I would personally sell SAHA and use the funds to buy Frazier Campbell and offer Owen a deal to bring him on a free... Yakubu, Owen, Campbell, Baxter seems a strong attack with 2 young ones on loan. Jo was a decent loan but Campbell and Owen seems better deals IMO, The question is how much funds do Everton even with sales of players.
They'd be insane to sell Lescott, and I'll be surprised if he does go. At the least, they should demand they get Jo in return - he seemed to do all right for them and isn't going to get much joy at City next season (who now have approximately as many strikers as they have £s). Wheater also signed a new deal for Boro didn't he? He certainly sounded dead-set on staying there. Who's supposed to be in for Jacobsen? When is the Yak even due back? Wouldn't bother selling Saha to get Owen either - one liability striker for another but with Saha on a pay-as-you-play deal they'd just as well keep him. There's not much between them anyway.