Curbishley wants fairer TV deal

Alan Curbishley has called for the Premiership to revise the allocation of television money amid fears Charlton face a blackout.

Charlton have had their last three home league games live on Sky and subsequently fulfilled the minimum number of screenings for the season.

Curbishley is concerned that while teams like his own are shown the bare minimum, the big clubs are on four or five times as often.

And the Addicks boss insists if the trend continues to show Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United regularly, redistribution of the Premier League TV money must be made.

In the latest batch of live Premiership matches on Sky to be announced, up until March 3, Charlton will not return to living rooms while champions Arsenal are due to be on eight times, United nine and Liverpool 10.

Under the current scheme, half the television deal money is divided equally amongst the top-flight clubs, a quarter shelled out for individual appearances and the remainder is performance-related, depending on final Premiership position.

“The significance of that possibly being our last live game of the season might not be appreciated by some,” said Curbishley after Sunday’s 3-1 Valley win over Blackburn.

“Each club is guaranteed three live games, worth approximately £660,000 a time, but after that every one is a bonus.

“History shows that the top clubs, such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, will be shown around 15 times a season whereas the lesser lights may not be seen more than the minimum three occasions.

“The only time one of those lesser lights are shown after Christmas is if they happen tobe playing one of those top teams or they are involved in a relegation battle.

“It is easy to see the financial impact that the live games and position payments have and they all favour the bigger clubs.”

Curbishley added: “That is not a criticism of Sky, it’s down to how the Premiership have allocated the money.

“Perhaps a fairer distribution would be 75% allocated 20 ways, 12.5% towards the matches and 12.5% on a merit award then they can be on the TV as much as they want.

“You would have a more competitive league because the money would help the smaller clubs compete.

“There was a move a couple of years ago to distribute the money a little more evenly but it failed because the bigger clubs wanted as much as they could because they have to compete in the Champions League.”

Consecutive victories for the south-east London club, following success at Manchester City, have eased them away from the Premiership drop zone.

Charlton had not scored more than twice in any domestic encounter since January 1, a run of 34 matches, but that all changed in the final minute when man-of-the-match Jason Euell lashed perhaps the fiercest shot of the season so far past Alan Kelly from 25 yards.

“I’ve never hit one that hard to score before in a match,” said Euell of his third goal of the season.

“Sometimes when the game is going your way it hits the back of the net - that’s the way it was on Sunday.

“I was surprised it went in because it was more or less straight down the middle – but it got a little bit of movement.”

A tactical switch, with record signing Euell shifted to a role behind the strikers from his usual centre-forward position, appears to be working for the Addicks.

Since Curbishley made the alteration, Charlton have six points out of six and Euell said: “It’s not something I am used to doing but I enjoyed getting the ball in unusual areas and the chance to bring other people into play.

“When you play there and you are winning games it makes it that little bit more exciting.”

He added: “In our eyes we knew we shouldn’t be down there near the bottom and if we could just put a few wins together we would start climbing the table – so let’s hope we can do it from now.”

Blackburn, meanwhile, are struggling to overcome their injury blight and manager Graeme Souness is keen to add new faces when the January transfer window opens.

“We feel weak in certain areas and we will try and strengthen those in January if we have enough money – because we are not the Blackburn of when Jack (Walker) was alive, we are in there with everyone else now.”

Although Souness already has five strikers at the Lancashire club, he confirmed he would be speaking to Hakan Sukur, the 31-year-old Turkish international, within the next week.

Sukur, currently a free agent after two seasons in Italy with Inter Milan and Parma, worked with Souness at Galatasaray and will join up with him again to train with Rovers this week.