Record TV deal must lead to reduced ticket prices

London, Feb. 11, (dpa/GNA) - The Premier League's record UK television rights deal must lead to reduced ticket prices for fans, a number of leading former players have said.

The Premier League announced Tuesday that Sky and BT had agreed to pay 5.136 million pounds (7.85 million dollars) for the domestic live rights for the three seasons from 2016.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore described it as a "good deal for all the clubs in English football and all the other organizations and charities that depend on Premier League revenues."

But a number of former England players said the money must be reflected in reduced ticket prices to allow "ordinary fans" to continue supporting the game.

Former England captain Gary Lineker, now a TV presenter for BBC, said on Twitter: "£5 billion for the new @premierleague TV deal. The game's awash with money. Cut ticket prices & make it affordable for real fans to attend".

Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher backed Lineker's comments, saying: "..with the amounts involved, ticket pricing, especially for away fans, has to change. £20 for the 20 away games".

And another former England striker, Ian Wright, said on Twitter: "I say let the fans in for a tenner. The only people who never benefit."

Former Tottenham chairman and owner, Alan Sugar, said the new deal would be bad news for those who want the national team to succeed.

"It is an amazing amount of money," he told the BBC. "In one way it is positive for the teams, but I think it is pretty negative for the future of international football for England.

"The more money that is given to the clubs, the more money is spent on players. Anyone who knows the effect of prune juice, it is pretty simple, it goes in one end and comes out the other and that is exactly what is going to happen with this money.

"A deal is a deal. I suppose the Premier League hierarchy have done a good deal in squeezing the most amount of money out of broadcasters and someone has done a very, very good job so I suppose they are happy.

"Will they be happy in a year when all the money they have got they have given to players and players agents? (That) is another story."

Sky are paying 4.176 billion pounds for a total of 126 games, while BT Sport, which will show 42 live matches, paid just under 1 billion pounds.

The total figure, vastly higher than the predicted figure of 4.4 billion pounds, is 70 per cent more than the last three-year packages and works out at an average of more than 10 million pounds per match.

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