Chapter 974: Yes or No?
Following Michael Ashley's lead, many people in the conference room also expressed their opinions.
Yang Huan kept smiling, nodded, and said, "What you say is not without reason, but could you please listen to me?"
When everyone heard this, they fell silent again. They all wanted to listen to what Young Master Huan had to say.
Yang Huan also thought about it and organized his thoughts.
"As I said just now, in the professional league, it is impossible to treat every team equally, and in the entire European football world, it is impossible to maintain a balance between leagues."
Everyone nodded, and even a very few people vaguely understood what Young Master Huan meant.
To put it simply, Master Huan is playing a big game of chess!
"With the increase in broadcasting fees, in the new contract, the Premier League relegated teams will be able to share about 100 million pounds in broadcasting revenue. What does this mean?"
Yang Huan smiled slightly, "I will give you an accurate positioning. If calculated by purchasing power, as long as the Premier League relegated team controls its salary structure a little better, its purchasing power can be comparable to that of Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Naples in Serie A, and Valencia in La Liga!"
Everyone generally agreed with this point and there were no major objections.
"That is to say, according to this new contract, our relegated team can be on par with the upper and middle teams in other leagues, or even the first-tier teams."
This also means that mid-level teams in the Premier League will be able to poach high-quality stars from non-elite teams in other leagues without restraint.
In fact, this is something that mid-table Premier League teams have always done in the past.
However, due to objective factors such as the team's influence and media attention, and the fact that other leagues are aware of the serious inflation in the Premier League, it is difficult to poach popular stars. Even if they are poached, they generally have higher requirements in terms of transfer fees and annual salaries.
It should be said that the Premier League has more or less the feeling that people are stupid and have a lot of money and come quickly.
But to some extent, this is also inevitable.
"The problem with the Premier League now is that when the lower-middle teams have the purchasing power and strength of the upper-middle teams in other leagues, the top teams have completely lost the ability to compete with Real Madrid, Barcelona and other teams, and are forced to target the first-tier teams in other leagues, or even the upper-middle teams, the strength gap within the Premier League becomes very small."
To a certain extent, Yang Huan's words explain the difficulties faced by the Premier League in the past few years.
Especially the poor performance of strong teams in European competitions.
What it boils down to is lack of strength!
Of course, there are many reasons for the lack of strength, and even different teams have different reasons, but this is the general reason.
The narrowing gap in strength within the Premier League has led to fierce internal competition. Coupled with the lack of high-quality stars, the top teams have been unable to compete effectively in European competitions, directly leading to a bottleneck in the overall development of the Premier League.
When many people analyze the lack of competitiveness in the Premier League, they overlook a very important factor, that is, European football is a whole, an ecosystem that flows with each other.
When the Premier League monopolized three of the top four places in the Champions League for three consecutive years, what was the environment like in European football?
At that time, the European debt crisis had not yet fully erupted, and the mid- and upper-level teams in the other three major European leagues still had excellent purchasing power.
At that time, the Premier League's overseas copyright revenue was very small.
From 2001 to 2004, the Premier League's overseas copyright revenue was 178 million pounds.
From 2004 to 2007, overseas rights were sold for £325 million.
But in the 2007-2010 season, this figure increased significantly, jumping to 625 million pounds.
In the 2010-2013 season, it doubled again to 1.437 billion pounds.
From 2013 to 2016, it skyrocketed again, reaching more than 200,000 pounds.
Starting from 2016, overseas copyright revenue in the next three years is expected to exceed more than 3 billion pounds.
It should be noted that the overseas copyright income is not distributed according to the local distribution model, but is equally divided among the twenty teams.
In other words, in terms of this huge amount of interests, the Premier League is absolutely equal.
It is precisely the distribution of overseas copyrights that has greatly narrowed the income gap between the strong and weak teams in the Premier League.
In the 2003 and 2004 seasons when overseas copyright revenue was not obvious, the Premier League team with the highest revenue was about twice that of the team with the lowest revenue, but now it has been shortened to 1.5 times.
More importantly, with the outbreak of the European debt crisis, the purchasing power of teams in other European leagues has generally declined. However, under this circumstance, the purchasing power of mid- and lower-level Premier League teams has increased rapidly, which has directly led to a rapid improvement in the overall strength of mid- and lower-level Premier League teams and shortened the gap with the first group.
Therefore, the problem of the Premier League now is that the middle and lower-level teams have generally reached the upper-middle level of Serie A, Bundesliga, and even La Liga, but the upper-level teams are limited by the lack of competition with the giants in other leagues, lack the attraction and purchasing power for the top-level stars, and it is difficult for them to make a breakthrough in strength.
As for why?
The answer is simple. The professional players are also pyramid-shaped. Second-tier stars are often easier to find than first-tier stars, and first-tier stars are more numerous than top stars.
With teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich controlling top stars, it is difficult for the Premier League giants to find a way out and they can only watch helplessly as they are dragged into fierce competition by mid- and lower-tier teams.
It is entirely foreseeable that if the overseas copyright distribution model is not adjusted now, the Premier League will soon be unable to develop overseas markets due to the poor performance of its top teams, lack of influence and appeal.
Or further develop overseas markets to further narrow the gap between top teams and mid- and lower-tier teams.
As for the extra commercial development income that top teams have over mid- and lower-tier teams, this income is not obvious compared to the expensive salaries, high transfer fees, and extra talent reserves that top teams pay to hedge against risks.
What's more, the so-called commercial development does not require investment.
Therefore, what Yang Huan means now is to take this opportunity to reform overseas copyright income, divide it according to the local distribution method, appropriately widen the income gap between strong teams and weak teams, and enable strong teams to compete with strong teams in other leagues for the highest level stars.
"We Chinese have an old saying, 'A snake cannot survive without a head!'"
Yang Huan said while smiling at everyone.
"In a league, the strong teams are the leaders. If the Premier League wants to develop overseas markets, it needs a leader. It needs a team that can exert the influence of Premier League teams in European competitions and attract the attention of fans around the world with outstanding results and excellent stars."
"Everyone knows how big the overseas market is. In recent years, we have basically relied on the past few years. The century derby between Real Madrid and Barcelona has attracted the attention of fans all over the world. I don't need to say more about this. This is exactly what we lack in the Premier League at present."
"In terms of purchasing power, our mid- and lower-tier teams are far superior to the mid-tier teams in other leagues. In terms of tactical style, the tactical styles in the Premier League over the past few seasons have been varied, with various styles and schools blooming, which is really exciting."
"What we lack is a team like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich that has amazing appeal all over the world."
"I guarantee that if we have a team that can keep pace with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, or even beat them, the Premier League will be much better than it is now, and we will be able to go to huge overseas markets and make money as much as we want."
It has to be said that the blueprint outlined by Yang Huan is indeed very pleasing and makes sense.
The Premier League does lack a true leader.
There was Manchester United before, but now, Manchester United has collapsed.
Judging from the current situation, Southampton has the most hope.
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are close behind, and Manchester United and Arsenal are fully capable of catching up again if they seize the opportunity.
The overseas market is indeed huge, and is growing at a rate of 10% almost every year.
Whether it is on TV, the Internet, or the mobile field, the most important thing is to have high-quality content.
Content is king, this is the consensus of everyone.
And sports events are the king of kings.
Today, all over the world, whether it is wealthy North America and the Middle East, Asia, the future engine of world economic development, or South America and Africa, there is still an astonishing demand for high-quality football resources.
This is also the reason why Yang Huan said that the future overseas market will be quite amazing.
This is a big cake and also a carrot that Yang Huan threw to the management of all Premier League teams.
Yes or no?
Everyone in the conference room fell into deathly silence.
Everyone was thinking silently, recalling what Yang Huan had just said, looking around at their colleagues, as if trying to detect each other's intentions from each other's eyes and expressions.
Support or oppose?
There was silence for two or three minutes before Richard Scudmore stood up from his seat.
"Ok, everyone, it's almost time!"
The CEO of the Premier League said solemnly.
"Before everyone votes, I must say one thing first. According to the agreement reached between us and the English Football Association, after the new contract is signed, we will increase investment in youth training. At the same time, we are considering launching a youth training policy to support mid- and lower-level league teams. This is part of the league's sustainable development plan."
Compared with what Yang Huan mentioned before, these current things are completely ignored by the Premier League bosses.
Compared with the profits of billions, investments of tens of millions have to take a back seat.
Besides, investing in youth training will also benefit the entire Premier League, so after signing the new contract, everyone is more open-minded in this regard.
"Okay, now let's vote!"
Richard Scudmore spoke in a deep voice to the crowd below.
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became tense.
Everyone began to look left and right, and one or two even started discussing. The topic was all about the choice of whether to reform or not.
"According to the rules of the Premier League, any major decision must be voted on by 20 teams and only after two-thirds of the votes are in favor can the decision be officially passed."
At this point, Richard Scudmore reminded again: "That is to say, among the 20 teams present, 14 teams must agree, and the overseas copyright income reform can be officially launched from the 2016 to 2017 season."
"Let's start voting!"
Scudmore himself was a little nervous because he knew that this was an important vote that would affect the future development of the Premier League.
He was a steward and had no decision-making power, so he could only leave it to the twenty big men in front of him.
"Those who support reform, please raise your hands!"