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'Big Six' Eager for Greater Share of TV Rights Money as Premier League Clubs Meet for Vote

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Premier League club officials are set to vote today in London on Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore's proposed change on how the money from international broadcasting rights is distributed among teams. 

The 'big six' - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham are searching for a bigger share of the £1bn revenue as they believe their greater popularity means they deserve more. 

But any change in the current format would need a two-thirds majority or 14 out of 20 Premier League clubs. Everton, Leicester City and West Ham have indicated they would vote with the big six. However, they are unlikely to win the vote as the other 11 teams seem against it.

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They are arguing that the richer clubs already have a financial advantage through their commercial deals and revenue from European competitions. Also, they believe the league's current relative competitiveness is a big attraction for the Premier League abroad.

All that TV rights revenue is currently equally shared among all 20 Premier League sides, with last season every team earning just over £39m from the league's over 80 foreign deals. 

Burnley manager Sean Dyche has already made it clear that he believes no changes should be made. As reported by the Lancashire Telegraph, he said: "do I think it should be an even split? Yes, just for the reasons of competition.

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"We know it's an imbalanced competition anyway, if you make it even more imbalanced, and money rules the competitive element of top flight football, so if someone is getting even more, and someone gets even less, it's going to distort it."  

Under the proposed change, Scudamore wants 35 percent of the income to be distributed based on a team's league position as 'merit payments'. Under this format, last season's Champions Chelsea would have received £12m more than bottom placed Sunderland.

If the big six fail in their move for more TV rights money, they could look at alternative options, like re-visiting the idea of creating a European Super League. 

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