5 Feb 2009Sutcliffe calls for Premier League rights money to be pushed to grassroots

Football Finance News | Football Sponsors/ Sponsorship and Media

UK sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe reacted to news of the Premier League rights deal yesterday (February 4th) by calling for the money to be filtered throughout the game.

It was confirmed on Tuesday that BSkyB had maintained its share of the deal for a fee believed to be around £1.31 billion, while the BBC secured a highlights deal worth roughly £173 million.

With the remaining two out of six live broadcast packages set to open to bidders tomorrow, Mr Sutcliffe has moved to urge the Premier League to ensure that the money goes all the way down to the bottom of the sport.

He said: "It's good news that in the present climate they've been able to maintain and improve the package. It's a massive amount of money.

"It's good for the spectator and hopefully good for the sport. What we need to make sure now is that money gets down to the grassroots."

Mr Sutcliffe added that much of the new Sport England plan is focused on making authorities contribute more to community sport and that this is a "wonderful opportunity" for football to do so.

BSkyB will be showing 92 live matches per season until 2013 as part of the new deal.

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