The Observer:
Premier League clubs have agreed to change the way money from their lucrative television deal is distributed in a bid to stop the growing financial divide between richer and poorer sides becoming even wider.
The clubs have agreed to modify the way the 25 per cent of their broadcasting income allocated to clubs shown on live TV is shared out. They have acted in response to fears that the big clubs, certain to be involved in even more live transmissions from next season, would make unhealthily large sums compared to their less well-off rivals.
Agreement in principle was reached at Thursday's quarterly meeting of the 20 clubs about bringing in what a source described as 'a mechanism to ensure greater financial certainty' by limiting what those teams shown most often in live broadcasts can earn from facility fees from Sky and newcomers Setanta. The detail will be agreed at the league's summer meeting in June.
Analysts expect that, with two broadcasters involved in showing live Premiership games for the first time, there will be 'aggressive picking' of the games they want to show, with the result that the league's big draws are shown even more often than at present.
However, debate on more radical plans to divide TV money much more equitably did not occur. Charlton and a number of other smaller clubs want to increase the amount of money distributed equally between all clubs from 50 per cent to 70 per cent.