Brighton fans fury at 'unjust' Premier League TV deal – 'Another nail in football's coffin'

The league announced on Friday that all matches not already earmarked for live coverage would be available on one or other of the broadcasters’ Box Office services.

Former England and Manchester United defender Gary Neville criticised the pricing, which BT said would be £14.95 per match, and the Football Supporters’ Association said it had already heard from fans who were concerned about the cost.

Albion fans also took to social media to voice their frustrations:

@Charlie_Gresty: I’ve already more than half paid my @OfficialBHAFC season ticket for the season. I pay for @SkySports subscription and for @btsport through my internet. Now broadcasters / @premierleague want me to pay even more to watch games. Ridiculous. Such a bad look for all involved #bhafc

@TheGC16: I’ve already paid half my season ticket for this season but may as well start coughing up £15 per game from this point onwards. Just to confirm to everyone that wasn’t sure, I am indeed, a moron.

@wearebrighton Paying £60 a month for a #BHAFC season ticket we can't use. Paying a Sky Sports subscription, Paying a BT Sport subscription. And now if we want to watch the Albion in a match that isn't meant to be shown live, it will cost another £15 per game. No thanks!

@Gazburgess14 Another nail in the coffin for football fans. Clubs still taking out ST money in most cases most people have sky and BT sport ! Now they want us to pay out even more !!#AMF #BHAFC

@TonyMarj The @premierleague can stick the charge where the sun doesn't shine. I've already paid in advance for all home @OfficialBHAFC games as a season ticket holder so they need to provide me with what I'm owed. #bhafc

A statement from the FSA read: “Today’s announcement shows that fan power works. At the start of this season the Premier League and its broadcasters had planned to leave match-going fans entirely locked out of their side’s matches; now thanks to the sustained pressure of our #LetUsWatch campaign all games will be available for fans.

“Many Premier League clubs have already taken money from fans, particularly season ticket holders, for matches they can’t attend so we urge them to get refunds out to those supporters as soon as possible.

“We’ve also already heard from many supporters and FSA members who are concerned about the £15 per game being charged and we’d urge BT Sport and Sky Sports to reconsider their pricing for these games.”

Neville took to Twitter to add his criticism of the pricing.

“This is a really bad move by the @premierleague to charge £14.95 for single matches that have been shown free for 6 months !” he wrote on his official account.

BT Sport defended the move, and said in a statement: “With supporters still unable to return to stadiums, we want to help fans watch the games they would usually attend and clubs generate critical revenue.”

The PA news agency understands Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was opposed to the pay-per-view proposal and preferred a model which would give season ticket holders access to home matches.

However, it is understood United accept that decisions such as this are made by the Premier League as a collective. No decision has yet been made on how to divide up the revenue from the pay-per-view games.

On the first weekend of October, all matches were televised by either Sky or BT. It had been hoped that grounds would be up to one-third full for those games, but the Government’s decision to scrap the return of fans from October 1 due to a rise in coronavirus cases meant the Premier League needed to find a way to screen all the games.

In September, matches were shown on those two broadcasters plus Amazon and the BBC.

All 92 matches of the restarted 2019-20 season were televised, with 33 of those games made available free to air.

Earlier this week, the Premier League joined forces with the EFL and the Football Association to call on the Government to provide “clarity” over the road map to getting supporters safely back into stadiums.

The organisation’s chairman, Gary Hoffman, sits on the Sports Technology and Innovation Group (STIG) which looks at how technology can be harnessed to get fans back into venues.