Anyway, the deep-seated problems in the English game stem from the fact that there is already too much money – leading to wage inflation and the distortion of the gap between the wealthiest and the rest. The Prem is now such a tedious – and expensive – experience that fans are increasingly downsizing to lower-league teams (or even starting their own) to try and recapture the real essence of the game. Who benefits from all this extra revenue? Not the fans – whose ticket prices rise extortionately; not the league clubs, who see the prospect of competing disappearing into the far distance; not even (very much) the clubs themselves – most of this extra revenue is swallowed up in wage inflation and increased agent percentages.

We need LESS football on TV, not more and we don’t ‘deliver the game to a wider audience’ by standing all over their emergent leagues. If the Americans/Koreans/whoever want wall to wall football, let them watch their own teams. Even better, they could get up out of their sofas and go and watch teams in the flesh, rather than the vapid and unsatisfactory experience watching football on the telly is.

Blanket TV coverage of the English game is a disastrous idea. It gives even more power to the Prem, at the expense of the Football League; it continues to distort the gap between the loathsome Big Four and the rest; and it promotes the utterly false idea that what matters are TV subscribers rather than real fans. Hideous, hideous, hideous.

The FA would need to devise a revenue-sharing system for this expanded coverage to benefit all the clubs. There’s a chance that this might effectively end the “club” system as we know it and make it more closely resemble the American monopoly leagues, but the fact of the matter is that there is revenue out there that the Premier League is missing out out on, and that won’t be sitting well in any club boardroom. Particularly those of the larger, more powerful clubs.

I think there can be a way to keep the club system while also tapping in to the worldwide revenue streams and delivering the game to the wider audience, but I’m not sure Scudamore has the brains to create such an entity.

Lord have mercy.

This idea was half-baked from the start and should never have been allowed to see the light of day…

Here’s a better idea for the Premier League — a worldwide PPV package that serves up every game in HD, just like NFL Sunday Ticket. If they really want the American dollar, that’s the way to go. I’m already paying an extra $28/month or so for a limited selection of Premier League matches *not* in HD, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.