Thread by @ademir2z

Really important point about this. JP Morgan are not ‘financing’ this deal as in paying for it. They are lending the ESL the money, to be paid back with interest over the long term. The clubs are not receiving ‘new’ money. They are taking a loan secured on future TV revenues.

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1384096993685884929

What’s more, the finances of this whole endeavour are slightly precarious. The clubs are talking about getting €4bn a year in TV money. With 20 clubs participating that’s €200m each which is less than lots of the top teams get already.

€4bn may well be right, but it’s significantly more than the entire CL rights at present. Even if they match the existing CL money in England, Spain and Italy, what about the rest of the continent?

What does this do for match day revenues? Unless they’re playing each other more than once introducing cup competitions, the clubs are going to have less fixtures. It’s an increasingly small factor but important still.

For someone like Barcelona, how does this actually work? Supposedly salaries will be restricted to 55% of turnover. They are currently at 61%. They currently make £250m in TV money. Where is the new money coming from?

At the moment it looks like the numbers don’t stack up. If this is a direct swap for the Champions League it works. But if the clubs are thrown out of the league competitions then suddenly they end up losing money.

What it doesn’t feel like (yet) is a financial game changer which it really needs to be. If players are going to lose out on international football it needs to be silly money and it will need all the top players in it.

Also, does this make sense as a deal for a provider like Amazon, BT or Sky? They all use TV as a vehicle to drive sales of other products. If even a decent chunk of potential customers choose to boycott them it’s simply not worth laying out huge money to be a part of this.