Finance guru: Celtic shortchanged as new £150m details revealed
Celtic and the rest of the SPFL could have extracted more cash for their broadcast rights.
That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the renewed deal with Sky Sports.
The media giants will pay £150million to air 60 matches in each of the deal’s five seasons, a £5m increase in the previous deal, as relayed by BBC Sport last Tuesday (27 September).
Rangers were the only SPFL side not to back the deal, forcing the organisation’s chairman Neil Doncaster to rip up the rule book and bypass them entirely.
The Hoops’ arch rivals argued that more money could have been made if the rights had gone to tender.
But as quoted by the Glasgow Times after the deal was announced, Doncaster revealed that they had hired a former Premier League rights advisor to get the best possible deal for the collective.
Plumley, however, believes that the SPFL could have demanded more than £30m per campaign.
“Personally, I think there is more room for growth in that market,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“The deal is a good deal, but I do think there are opportunities to expand. It’s tricky with Scottish football because you know that Rangers or Celtic are going to win the title every year.
“That is not to say you can’t raise the profile of the league. There are some other clubs in there that have a lot of history.
“I also think if you look in and around Europe, there are leagues that are perhaps smaller than Scottish football with bigger deals.
“I’m not saying it’s easy to do. It also takes the league as a collective to take the initiative.”
In other news, pundit tells Celtic to U-turn on Oscar Gloukh after journalist’s £8m update.