Roddy Forsyth: Why Old Firm should toast the other 'KM' - and the Red, White and Blue

Roddy Forsyth: Why Old Firm should toast the other ‘KM’ – and the Red, White and Blue

It is a matter of profound regret that on Friday there will be no street parties to celebrate the occasion in Govan or the east end of Glasgow – and no tea-towels or silver spoons or commemorative mugs bearing the initials KM on sale in the souvenir shops at Ibrox or Parkhead. Frankly, they should all be waving their hats in the air and shouting: “God Bless Yer Ma’am – and the Red, White and Blue!”

Landmark case: Karen Murphy is taking her fight with Sky all the way to the European Court of Justice Photo: REX FEATURES

By Roddy Forsyth 6:25AM BST 29 Apr 2011

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In case you have been in space orbit or a coma for the last few days, you’ll know, of course, that we’re talking about Karen Murphy, Pub Landlady, whose single-handed battle against Sky – and the subscription fees it charges licensed premises to show live football – will be the subject of a ruling in the European Court of Justice this summer.

Karen, whose pub – the Red, White and Blue – in Portsmouth, treated its customers to Premier League action via a Greek TV decoder, which cost considerably less than the Sky equivalent. Sky – and the Premier League, who license match screening rights to the satellite broadcaster – took the hump at this development which they saw as a clear and present danger to their revenue stream.

They pressed a case against Ms Murphy, who was convicted of a criminal copyright infringement of Sky’s rights. The indomitable landlady was having none of it and took her case to the European Court of Justice – the EU’s highest court – on the grounds that that the ban on the use foreign decoders in the UK violates European legislation covering competition and free movement of goods.

The court’s General Advocate, Juliane Kokott, produced a 60-page report that not only backed Karen in her dispute with Sky and the Premier League but also examined the legality of selling European TV rights on nation-by-nation basis, which is why, on Wednesday, William Gaillard – adviser to Uefa President Michel Platini – said, of Champions League broadcast revenue: “This may force us to sell the rights on a Europe-wide basis, which would prevent us from identifying individual national TV pools.

“That will be bad news for clubs in big TV markets such as England.”

Yes, but good news for clubs in small TV markets such as Scotland. In these pages on Aug 10 last year, under the headline: “Uefa must be able to find fairer way of organising its competition”, I wrote – of the draw that had just paired a Scottish side with an English team in the Champions League: “If Rangers and Manchester United finish with nine points each in Group C, the Old Trafford club will make up to three times as much as their Scottish counterparts.

“This is because of the inequities of the TV market pool in which broadcasters from larger countries pay more than their equivalents in small countries. The prize money is allotted on the same basis, meaning that just being located in a big country inflates the earnings of some clubs, regardless of their support base.

“Hence, Celtic, who took at least 60,000 fans to the Uefa Cup final in Seville in 2003, will always earn less than Bayer Leverkusen, who couldn’t sell 10,000 tickets for their Champions League final against Real Madrid in 2002.”

The market pool system was necessary for the initial success of the Champions League because national broadcasters wanted to pay out on the basis of their clubs’ progress. However, it has helped to distort the difference in earnings between the likes of the Old Firm, Porto, Benfica or Ajax and clubs from the Big Five countries.

As a rough rule of thumb, had Celtic or Rangers been drawn in the same Champions League group as Premier League clubs over a period of 10 years and had they finished on exactly the same points total every time, the difference in revenue would be in the region of £90 million – equal to about 150 per cent of the annual turnovers of each of the Old Firm pair.

Assuming that an equitable arrangement would split the difference, the return to the Glasgow clubs – in the situation described above – would work out at around £4.5 million a year, about what Craig Whyte has promised he will make available for Rangers to spend on players for each of the next five seasons.

It would not put the Old Firm on the same economic plane as the biggest clubs from the biggest leagues but if you offered Neil Lennon or Walter Smith a wad like that they’d bite your hand off. And with any luck, some of the dosh would find its way to the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, Motherwell or other clubs whose appreciation would be just as heartfelt.

Uefa are worried that their rights will drop in value but they have also yet to come to terms with the fact that content increasingly drives consumption – and that there are new ways of consuming content. After all, who’d be surprised if the 2020 equivalent of the iPad offers live football on subscription?

The European Court of Justice will issue its ruling in the summer but precedent strongly suggests that it will favour Karen Murphy. Royalty on TV has its market – as we will see today – but it is royalties from the TV market that will prompt toasts at Ibrox and Parkhead to Ms Murphy, pub landlady-in-waiting for justice.

McVitie’s decision to remove Union flag takes biscuit

Brilliant, isn’t it? Wills and Kate asked McVitie’s to make them a chocolate biscuit cake for the Royal wedding but staff at the company’s Glasgow factory were told by management to take down a Union flag because of its “direct connotations with football and sectarianism”.

True, Kate is joining the one British club where a Catholic can’t get the top job, but the Union flag will be flown from Glasgow’s public buildings today, unless perhaps McVitie’s threatens to withdraw HobNobs from City Council canteens. Still, matters should be easier to arrange for the Queen’s state visit to the Republic of Ireland next month.

All it will take is Glasgow’s universally recognised symbol of peace and harmony – a nicely mingled display of Union flags and green, white and orange tricolours.

Meanwhile, humour was to be found at Sunday’s Old Firm derby at Ibrox, where Glasgow comedian Andy Cameron contributed to the match programme. Andy harked back to the 1999 title decider at Parkhead, when a Celtic fan toppled from one of the stands during Rangers’ 3-0 victory.

According to Cameron (and this only works in a Glaswegian accent) the victim was taken to hospital where a shocked nurse exclaimed: “Oh my God – have ye seen the surgeon?” Came the reply: “Ah never even seen the second yin!”

Day I helped make history at SFA...

The Scottish Football Association made a little piece of history last week when it permitted outsiders, this correspondent included, to attend – and to contribute to – a debate at a meeting of its Council. The subject for debate was certainly timely - “Football disciplinary matters can be handled by the football authorities without the need for legal intervention: Is this a pipe-dream in the current football market place?”

Each speaker was allowed five minutes to make his case and only one exceeded the limit.

There was much cogent argument, to which we shall return at another time – you can hear the debate on the SFA website via the categories, Inside Football and Scottish FA News – but the biggest laugh of the afternoon came when Rod Petrie,

the Hibs chairman, said of his Kilmarnock counterpart, a solicitor by profession: “We heard from Michael Johnston, who told us that lawyers say things more quickly – and then ran out of time!”
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