Elia Santoro 💙 · @Elia_Santoro
1st Apr 2019 from TwitLonger
NOT GOOD .... Fox Sports flags reduced #ALeague fee if code doesn’t improve by @Gatty54 & @JohnStensholt
RAY GATT
JOHN STENSHOLT
12:00AM APRIL 2, 2019
Football Federation Australia and the A-League clubs have been warned to sort out the A-League or face a huge drop in the amount of money the game will receive for the next broadcast rights deal.
The sobering kick up the backside came to light after details emerged yesterday of the draft New Leagues Working Group (NLWG) recommendations report into the formation of an independent national competition.
In a submission to the group, Fox Sports is believed to have expressed concerns about falling ratings and suggested the A-League in current form is unsustainable.
The A-League has suffered in recent seasons through a decline in interest caused by the failure to expand the 10-team competition quickly enough, the fight between FFA and the clubs over the independence of the league and a lack of superstar players. Television ratings are down and attendances at games have plateau.
The clear message from Fox Sports is that unless things change, the broadcast rights fee will fall.
The much-anticipated 70-page report has been six weeks in the making, “involved hundreds of hours of work” and was compiled by a group of the game’s stakeholders — the nine presidents of the member federations, five A-League club chairmen, two members of Professional Footballers Australia, two members of the Women’s Football Council, two FFA directors, members of FFA’s management (as required) and an independent non-voting chair, Judith Griggs.
The NLWG set out 15 recommendations, many revolving around legal implications relating to issues such as broadcast obligations, commercial partnership and sponsorship rights and obligations, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, League assets and intellectual property, taxation, further financial due diligence and valuations.
Some of those recommendations are still being negotiated and will probably require more tough bargaining before agreement can be reached.
Central to that is how much the clubs are prepared to give FFA in terms of financial support from the current broadcast rights deal with Fox Sports, who are in the third year of a $346 million six-year deal.
The clubs are pushing to retain 90 per cent of the money but FFA are understood to be demanding an 18.5 per cent share for themselves. The member federations, who receive a funding allocation from the FFA, are unhappy that they could be affected under the financial split.
In compiling the report, designed to see the A-League move from the control of the FFA to being run as an independent entity by October, the NLWG took into account submissions from a number of stakeholders as well as Fox Sports.
The working group reported that Fox’s submission “made for sober reading”.
“The NLWG recognised that under whatever New Professional Leagues Model is adopted, the relationship between the Professional Leagues entity and Fox Sports Australia will be paramount, just as will preservation of the respective rights and obligations of the FFA and Fox Sports Australia under contract.”
Sources suggested to The Australian that the report regarding Fox Sports “is spot on”.
Despite the Fox concerns, the pending release of the report sees an independent league move one step closer, though it could be cutting it fine to have all necessary legalities in place by the proposed kick-off in October.
The report recommends that “all parties and stakeholders, through their nominated lead negotiators and advisers, seek to conclude their negotiations for the new Professional Leagues Model as soon as practicable following March 31, 2019, and, having done so, to document and execute all consequential and/or necessary binding long-form agreements and do all things reasonably necessary to give effect to such agreements by June 30, 2019 (including submission of any proposed FFA constitutional changes to the Members of FFA).”
The report’s recommendations eventually need to be put as a “special resolution” to a meeting of FFA members before an independent A-League is approved.
Under the terms of the report, only the nine member federations and the three Women’s Football Council members elected by the state bodies will be entitled to vote on the resolution while the A-League clubs, PFA, Women’s Council (other than those elected by the state bodies) and any new members cannot vote