West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady has been called to a high level multi-billion pound meeting with the Premier League in London today.
West Ham fans who are already fed up with the way the fixture calendar is handled in this country look away now.
Because while West Ham’s majority owner David Sullivan and Czech billionaire co-owner Daniel Kretinsky may be rubbing their hands, the average football fan could face yet more disruption and departure from tradition.
Hammers fans may have seen talk this week of potential changes to the scheduling for Premier League matches.
West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady called to high level multi-billion pound meeting with Premier League in London today
There have been reports that the new TV rights deal could see the introduction of regular Sunday night games, more Friday and Monday night football and an increased number of time slots throughout the weekend for games to be shown live on the box.
At the heart of it all is of course money. The money which, West Ham would argue, helps the club sign the likes of Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta.
Now West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady has been called to a high level multi-billion pound meeting with the Premier League in London today.
West Ham and their 19 Prem rivals will be updated on key talks around a new broadcasting rights plan, increased financial handouts to English Football League clubs and how to tackle the looming changes to the fixture calendar when they meet in London on Thursday.
Domestic deals to be discussed and it could mean yet more big changes for fans
Hammers chief Brady is likely to be the one attending the Prem HQ at the Brunel Building in North Wharf on behalf of the West Ham board.
The league has already negotiated some six-year overseas TV deals, including with key US broadcaster NBC, who are paying around £2bn to screen matches until 2028.
But domestic deals with Sky Sports, TNT and Amazon Prime run out in 2025, reports BBC Sport.
The Premier League is looking at ways to maximise those contracts, which are currently worth in excess of £5bn and were rolled over from the end of 2022 following the impact of the Covid pandemic.
One way of generating more revenue would be to increase the number of live matches, possibly by as many as 50, which would mean making more slots available than presently exist.
Will money win over fans as usual?
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has already said there are no plans to show matches at 3pm on a Saturday, the time slot currently subject to a TV blackout in the UK, which means the league must assess alternatives.
It is currently rare that both the Friday and Monday night match slots are occupied during the same weekend, which could change.
In addition, Saturday and Sunday late evening matches are currently used sparingly, but could become more common.
A penny for the thoughts of West Ham fans and those of clubs up and down the country on those slots.
As ever in the modern game, though, money will likely win over any consideration for being fan friendly.
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