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Just as you were taking the finger from your throat on came the Football League Chairman Keith Harris. He said it was great news that Nationwide League football was back with a proven company in terms of covering the game. Hang on, wasn't Harris part of the team that accepted the ITV Digital last year? The wise after the event chairman has something to answer for.
This web site will back the clubs all the way in their fight against Carlton and Granada but have and will remain extremely critical of those responsible at the Football League for the failed deal. They did not give a damn about the fans at the time when they signed, a contract they signed out of pure greed. Harris was just pathetic yesterday and then made things worse by gloating that there would be no Thursday football.
I have always been of the opinion that heads must roll at the Football League, their recent dealings have certainly highlighted their incompetence. Now a First Division chairman is saying the same thing. Not happy at all with the new Sky deal is Palace chairman Simon Jordan and he had this to say about it,
"I am totally stunned and disgusted at the way this has been handled by the League. I am shocked by the small amount of money we have got and staggered that the news was put in the public domain before the clubs were told.
"I only found out about it when I turned on the television and immediately had another First Division chairman ringing me up in disbelief as well. This is just typical of the incompetents who run the Football League and I hold David Burns and the whole executive responsible.
"I can only assume that the morons who run the League think they can use this as proof of losses incurred when they take ITV Digital to court. The sooner Burns and the rest of them are removed from office, the better. They should simply be sacked."
If Mr. Jordan didn't know about it until he saw it on TV then it can only be assumed that his club knew nothing about it either. That certainly didn't apply to all clubs with Burnley being able to announce it prior to the official release at 12 noon yesterday. So it seems there were those clubs in the know and some clubs not.
It is a deal though and it is some money coming in but if the Football League had shown any sense in the first place they would have signed up with Sky and not On/Off Digital as it was then known. Then the clubs would have been pulling in far more money than they will be with this deal that doesn't even quite match the previous Sky deal.