At every turn the league seems to have got it wrong, when the TV company was crashing they offered a pay off of a few million which was turned down, and subsequently lost, to add to the fact that the loss of the contract plunged many clubs into crisis.
The Football League decided to get their own back and pointed the finger firmly at their advisors Edge Ellison and yesterday won their High Court case against them for negligence. And the league won, sort of.
The Court found that Edge Ellison had failed in their duty to properly advise the Football League on two separate occasions, initially when they failed to read the bid document from ITV Digital (then OnDigital), which suggested parent company guarantees were available, before negotiating, and then allowing the League to enter into, a binding short form agreement based upon that document without such guarantees.
The second finding was when, despite then having read the bid document, as part of their preparations for the negotiation of the long form contract, they did not take instructions on the issue of guarantees.
It's all good then, finally the clubs are in for a bit of money after four years of trying. Not on your life, the Court found that these failures by Edge Ellison were not responsible for the League suffering the losses it did and awarded the Football League the grand total of £4 in damages. Yes, you have read that correctly, just £4.
It is thought that the League could not be liable for costs of up to £5 million and needless to say the clubs will be losing out again as that bill has to be met.
Although admitting to being disappointed by the verdict, the failed politician and now Football League Chairman Lord Mawhinney finally spoke some sense when he suggested that it is time for the League to draw that line under it and move on.
It was a disaster right from the minute they signed a deal with a fledgling company that people were already warning could not survive, and the mistakes have continued since, one after the other. Let's hope this week we have seen the last mistake and the ITV Digital mistake can be buried once and for all.
Meanwhile Sky have revealed some of the early season games for screening live with three clubs already being allocated two games. The ones announced so far are:
5th Aug: Luton v Leicester
6th Aug: Coventry v Sunderland
18th Aug: Coventry v Leicester
27th Aug: Leeds v Sheffield Wed
28th Aug: Sunderland v West Brom
