Kieran Maguire: Liverpool ‘could cause huge damage’ to football after confirmed news
Liverpool and their Premier League allies could cause ‘huge damage’ to grassroots football by pushing to end the 3pm TV blackout.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the pros and cons of changing the broadcasting rules for domestic football.
The Premier League decided to reschedule a match between Leeds United and Manchester City to the 3.00pm slot so as not to clash with King Charles III’s coronation.
The match is still set to be broadcast domestically, breaking the blackout rules that have been in place since the 1960s.
Despite the change, Football Insider sources revealed on Wednesday (26 April) that the decision is not indicative of a long-term plan to scrap the Saturday 3.00pm blackout.
Maguire insists that larger Premier League clubs such as Liverpool will start pushing to eradicate the blackout to increase broadcast revenues.
“The Premier League currently don’t operate the 3pm blackout in overseas markets,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“Therefore, you can see at some point in the future there will be a desire, especially from bigger clubs with big fanbases like Liverpool, to start pushing to remove the blackout domestically.
“The concern is that it could cause huge damage to grassroots football and perhaps do more harm there than it benefits the Premier League.
“It also presents an opportunity for clubs like Liverpool to perhaps persuade the rest of the Premier League that 3pm matches can be streamed by individual clubs.
“This could provide a significant amount of income for Liverpool given their national fanbase.“
In other news, Liverpool bid to sign two-times Player of the Year winner for affordable fee could now collapse