Manchester United v Basel - Ashley Young on his home CL debut | European Champions League 2011-12
- 10 years ago
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes television has too much power over English football.
In an exclusive interview with BBC North West Tonight, Ferguson said TV controls aspects of the game because of the vast amount of money it provides.
He claimed clubs had lost control over fixtures and this had had a detrimental effect on those competing in Europe.
"When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price," he said. "Television is God at the moment."
He added: "It shows itself quite clearly because when you see the fixture lists come out now, they can pick and choose whenever they want the top teams on television.
"You get some ridiculous situations when you're playing on Wednesday night in Europe and then at lunchtime the following Saturday. You ask any manager if they would pick that themselves and there'd be no chance."
And clubs, the 69-year-old Scot added, are not even getting the kind of money they deserve from TV. He said the Premier League sold their product to 200 countries and "when you think of that I don't think we get enough money".
Former Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick agreed that football is now "super-reliant on television" but suggested that TV revenue had helped facilitate United's success under Ferguson.
In an exclusive interview with BBC North West Tonight, Ferguson said TV controls aspects of the game because of the vast amount of money it provides.
He claimed clubs had lost control over fixtures and this had had a detrimental effect on those competing in Europe.
"When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price," he said. "Television is God at the moment."
He added: "It shows itself quite clearly because when you see the fixture lists come out now, they can pick and choose whenever they want the top teams on television.
"You get some ridiculous situations when you're playing on Wednesday night in Europe and then at lunchtime the following Saturday. You ask any manager if they would pick that themselves and there'd be no chance."
And clubs, the 69-year-old Scot added, are not even getting the kind of money they deserve from TV. He said the Premier League sold their product to 200 countries and "when you think of that I don't think we get enough money".
Former Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick agreed that football is now "super-reliant on television" but suggested that TV revenue had helped facilitate United's success under Ferguson.