Keep calm and carry on

Reports prophesising the premature demise of Football Association's four-year, £425m TV rights deal appear to have been somewhat exaggerated.

Empics

TV rights to the FA Cup and England games are the FA's commercial crown jewels

On Tuesday it was claimed that domestic coverage of the FA Cup and England internationals was under threat because broadcaster partners Setanta and ITV were desperate to renegotiate the terms of their deals and that Setanta were refusing to meet a scheduled £10m payment.

Such is the strain of the current economic climate that pay-TV platform Setanta, who have a £150m deal, and commercial terrestrial channel ITV, who have a £275m deal, were said to have approached the FA in an attempt to reduce their financial commitments.

But a source close to the discussions rubbished the claim and told Soccernet that the £425m windfall remains secure and confirmed that the neither broadcaster was seeking to revise their overall commitment.

However, the source did reveal that Setanta are looking to reschedule their payments after they encountering a cash-flow problem as a knock-on effect of its recent £159m deal with the Premier League.

Last month the Premier League announced a £1.78bn live TV rights deal in the UK after taking their rights to market six months earlier than originally planned; the league fast-tracked their plans believing that the deepening economic downturn would harm its chances of maximising its income if it stuck to its original timeframe.

It is that decision which has impacted on Setanta, who in order secure their deal with the Premier League were required to pay a deposit of 3% of their £159m deal. With the broadcaster also scheduled to make a £10m payment to the FA the Premier League's decision to speed-up its TV deals has left Setanta with a short-term liquidity problem.

The FA are unruffled by the situation and, in typically English style, are keeping calm and carrying on.

But the situation does mean the FA inadvertently finds itself inadvertently in a position of considerable power; if they were to force Setanta to meet their payments the negative impact on the broadcaster could have serious repercussions not just for the FA, but for Setanta's other partners, from the Premier League to the English Conference.

While the FA would be well within their rights to demand payment, to do so might prove counter-productive as plunging its partner into deeper financial strife could threaten their current deal, which is worth £125m more than the previous one with the BBC and Sky, and in the current market it is doubtful that a similar fee could be agreed if the property, which does not have the same draw as the Premier League, had to return to market.

Manchester United are 40% of the way towards an unprecedented quintuple of trophies.

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Arsenal won the double selling Dreamcast, a product which by that time had been canned.

But if Rooney, Ronaldo et al actually pull off what would be a remarkable achievement they will do so sporting the logo of a company so rooted in the global recession that this week it announced loses of $61.7bn - almost $28m an hour.

It is an incredible situation: In what could prove to be a seminal season, one of the world's most coveted pieces of sports sponsorship real estate is the sole preserve of AIG, the crisis-hit US insurance giant which has been propped up by a staggering $180bn of taxpayers' money.

Of course, none of this is United's fault; they were offered a record-breaking four-year, £56.5m deal and took it in good faith, but from a cynical ad man point of view it seems like a waste for all concerned that a possible quintuple will not be exploited by viable company or product.

The situation is reminiscent of Arsenal's Premier League and FA Cup winning side of 2001-02 who, with the football world watching, lifted both coveted titles wearing shirts emblazoned with the logo of a video game console which had been discontinued over a year earlier.

Sega ended electronics company JVC's 18-year relationship with Arsenal in 1999 when they signed a three-year £12m deal - a then record deal in the UK.

However, the Dreamcast console, which Sega hoped would allow them to reclaim their dominant position in the market from Sony and Nintendo, failed to capture the hearts and minds of the world's gamers and by March 2001 the console was canned.

But despite having Sega logos on their away shirts, Arsenal continued to sport the Dreamcast brand on their home shirts in order to fulfil the Premier League's customer charter which stated shirts must have a shelf-life of at least two years.

So, when Arsenal won the double and Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira hoisted the FA Cup and Premier League trophies they were sharing their moment with a defunct consumer product.

Unless things change, a similar fate seems to await United skipper Rio Ferdinand. Not that it will bother him in the slightest, and nor should it. It might, however, serve as an uncomfortable reminder of the extraordinary amount of public money which has been pumped into AIG.

Just when things seemed to have clamed down at West Ham United this week owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson could be forced by courts in his native Iceland to relinquish control of the club which could see it sold at a bargain basement price.

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Will the Icelandic authorities be able to force Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson to sell West Ham?

In the six months following the collapse of the Icelandic economy West Ham were listing on a sea of uncertainty, but thanks to the calming influence of Gianfranco Zola the ship has been steadied and the club have risen to seventh in the Premier League and now look a decent side.

However, off the pitch uncertainty remains. This week Gudmundsson is hoping judges extend the three-month moratorium currently in place which is blocking banks from attempting to seize his assets, including Hansa the holding company through which he controls West Ham.

If judges at the Reykjavik hearing on Friday decide against Gudmundsson the club could fall into the hands of a consortium of banks who would then move to sell the club as quickly as possible.

The club believe an extension will be granted because maximising the asking price for the club is most likely to be achieved at the end of the season.

But, there have been objections in Iceland where some observers contend that an asking price of £250m is wildly optimistic in the current market, not least because Sheffield United's £45.5m compensation claim is still hanging over the club.

It promises to be a nervous week at the Boleyn Ground.