Roger Mitchell has revealed that it was Celtic and Rangers (IL) that scuppered the infamous Sky Sports deal in 2002.
Ten out of the 12 SPL clubs voted to go with the offer from Sky Sports but the big two felt that the grass was greener elsewhere with SPL TV being floated at the time.
When no other option emerged the SPL turned to BBC Scotland who paid a miserable £7m a season for a two year deal that put football onto ‘council telly’.
Knocked back by 2 clubs only. Supported by a cross section of 10 of scotland’s finest businessmen. Rejected by Ian McLeod (Rangers fan) at Celtic, and by a club that went spectacularly bust thru bad business and non payment of tax. I’m on the side of the angels. Thanks mate ????.
— Roger Mitchell (@RPMComo) September 18, 2018
At the same time the English Premier League cranked up their partnership with Sky Sports with the Scottish game never recovering with future deals agreed with Setanta Sports, whose UK operation went into liquidation, before taking up the current £20m/year deal with Sky Sports.
The current deal was negotiated by Neil Doncaster shortly after the liquidation of Rangers with much of the previous deal built around the so-called Old Firm rivalry.
Scotland currently has the worst television deal in Europe with nations like Finland and Norway where football isn’t the national sport getting more lucrative deals.
