SPL expect Setanta to honour deal

The Scottish Premier League have told Setanta they fully expect them to honour their current television deal.

The broadcasters are up to date with their payments for televising Clydesdale Bank Premier League games.

But recent reports claiming Setanta were seeking to renegotiate their £150m (€162.7m) deal with the Football Association for the rights to the FA Cup and had withheld an instalment of £10m (€10.8m) sparked fears the company were struggling financially.

The current SPL deal runs until 2010 and is worth £54.5m (€59.1m) to Scottish football’s top flight, while last summer a new contract worth £125m (€135.6m) was agreed until 2014.

As far as SPL executive chairman Lex Gold is concerned, the situation is quite simple.

“We’ve got a contract with Setanta and Setanta are up to date with their payments to us,” he said.

“Clearly, they are looking at the model again because they are expected to get two of the packages from the English Premier League going forward and they haven’t done that.

“But we have a contract with them and our position is that we expect Setanta to honour that contract.”

Asked whether the SPL had no concerns about the Setanta deal, Gold added: “You’ve got to always continually look at it and we are in close touch with Setanta.”

Gold is well aware of how the current economic downturn could affect Scottish football.

“There are real issues out there,” he said. “You’ve got to be very careful and keep doing what is right.

“The game in general is in a much better state than it has been but you can’t be complacent because the challenges, particularly this coming year, are going to be considerable, not only for our clubs but clubs in the other divisions in the SFL.”

However, Gold is confident Scottish football’s top flight will continue to attract interest from all over the world.

“We have a very good overseas deal with a company called Sport Five and they are very keen to extend it,” he said.

“They have just approached us on that basis now. I don’t think they see the problems that others see.

“What is not commonly known is that our league is seen in over 100 countries around the world.

“Back home we are very critical and that’s right, we should have criticism because that keeps you up to scratch.

“But the point is, we are able to sell our clubs around the world because there is a huge interest in our game. We are a small nation, with five million people, but 100 nations watch it.”