Kieran Maguire issues ‘£20m’ reveal as Everton set to pay price for December crisis
Everton will only have to shell out a minimal sum in TV money rebates as Amazon’s broadcast deal is worth just “£20million”.
So says finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Covid-enforced cancellations over the Christmas period.
The Premier League have postponed 21 matches this term to date, and most of those came in December and were due to be televised.
The cancellations came as a blow to Amazon, whose allotment of Premier League games focuses on the festive fixture programme.
The Daily Mail reported last Saturday (22 January) that clubs are set to lose millions because of broadcasters’ demands for refunds.
Everton posted league-record losses of £139.9m for the last financial year, and the top-flight was forced to pay £303m in rebates in 2020-21.
But Maguire reassured the Toffees that the next set of rebates will not be anywhere near as severe.
“I anticipate relatively little pain for the club,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“That’s because the Amazon deal was at a bargain price because of the way it was sold by the Premier League.
“Because they paid next to nothing, the rebate is going to be next to nothing. When you spread that money over 20 clubs, it diminishes even more.
“I would also anticipate that the Premier League will go back to the broadcast partners and say they will make it up to them with some extra matches.
“They have been very supportive of the Premier League over the course of the pandemic.
“Now, this doesn’t really fit into the Amazon model because it is very much focused on that pre and post-Christmas market.
“I don’t know the exact figure but I was told the Amazon deal was worth around £20m.
“But if you compare that to the others, Sky and BT, that’s almost nothing.”
Everton are due to release their accounts for the 2020-21 financial year within the first quarter of 2022.
Owner Farhad Moshiri recently shored up the balance sheet by converting £100m worth of loans into equity.
In other news, Danny Mills tells Everton to appoint Duncan Ferguson as images emerge in last 24 hours.