Irish Examiner view: €2.3bn deal puts Premier League in pole position

American broadcaster NBC has extended the television deal to 2028

Newcastle United's Joelinton (right) celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game with team-mates during the Premier League match at St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, on Saturday. Newcastle United has been taken over by the sovereign investment fund of Saudi Arabia. Picture: PA

Just a few weeks ago, problems seemed to mount for the English Premier League. The chaotic arguments about the formation of a new European super competition caused rancour, resentment, street protests, and legal disputes.

Then there was the takeover, just last month, of Newcastle United by the sovereign investment fund of Saudi Arabia, an absolutist monarchy whose interpretation and implementation of Sharia law runs counter to many of the liberal and libertarian causes espoused and promoted by football club boards and owners.

Independent regulator

Limbering up on the sidelines is the prospect of the appointment of an independent regulator for the sport, a proposition resisted by the Premier League and the English Football Association but supported by the lower leagues. The chair of the fan-led review of governance, Tracey Crouch MP, is due to introduce her proposals imminently.

“The question is actually not about an independent regulator. It’s about what it regulates,” she says.

Whatever with all that, the American broadcaster NBC has helped to reinforce the Premier League’s position as the world’s paramount sporting competition by extending its TV deal to 2028 in a transaction worth €2.3bn, doubling the value of its current contract.

This new money will go some way to offsetting the losses which clubs have incurred since the start of the pandemic. Some of it will percolate downwards to the lower leagues. It will certainly cement the position of teams playing in England as the dominant force in European football. That may not sit well with nationalist sentiment here, but it will play happily with hundreds of thousands of Irish supporters.