In news just coming through, Derby County have confirmed in the Derby Telegraph that they will face fellow Sky Bet Championship side Leeds United at the iPro in a ‘friendly’ during the March international break. However, this is a friendly with a difference.
Derby owner Mel Morris, a long-term critic of the hegemony that the Football League has over media rights, is using the game with fellow high-profile side Leeds to issue a challenge to the league’s controlling body and simultaneously to highlight the opportunities that exist “outside the parameters of normal broadcasting regulations”.
An earlier story by the Mail Online said that Derby owner Morris was “in conflict with the Football League” over the issue of media rights and the monopoly that the League has over these rights. Morris points out that the monopoly deal over media rights applies to all teams and that he wants to show what could happen “if there was no restrictions from a monopoly TV deal for eight per cent of the fixtures.”
Mail Online say that the “formidable” Morris has “significant support” from other Football League clubs over his concerns, with the newspaper also quoting elements of a letter the Derby owner sent to clubs (below).
The text of this letter read:
“My quest is to ensure the Football League is able to efficiently and successfully grow our brand and our revenues. I am underwhelmed by our lack of stature and the weak levels of monetisation of our media rights and the seeming lack of efforts, focus and results delivered by those responsible. Even against the backdrop of the agreements that we are not allowed to see, we believe there are significant opportunities for all of us to generate meaningful incremental revenue, even for this season.”
A meeting is to be held at the iPro on January 5 where representatives of other EFL clubs where Derby are expecting up to 100 to attend. In the programme notes from the Boxing Day game, quoted by the Derby Telegraph, the Rams’ club president and chief executive Sam Rush said: “While it is usually transfer window shenanigans that occupy off-the-field activities and media ‘speculation’ at this time of year, the major focus in recent weeks has in fact been our work, led by chairman Mel Morris, with other Football League clubs in anticipation of all the clubs meeting here at Pride Park on 5th of January.”
Morris’ proposition to play Leeds will find an ally-of-sorts in Massimo Cellino, as he himself has issues with the Football League and its stance over media rights. Cellino himself, as per an earlier Mail Online article, is thought to have previously issued legal proceedings in order to attempt to break the Football League’s stranglehold on media rights.
At the time the Mail Online said that Cellino, enraged by the collective bargaining of a TV deal worth £100m-per-season, wanted “to attempt to dismantle the collective selling of TV rights and win the right to sell their own games.” It is this shared ethos that is likely to have driven Derby supremo Morris towards Leeds United as a suitable opponent for the ‘friendly’ fixture with added fizz in March’s international break.
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