Graham Kelly: Sky's expected European invasion will leave the home front vulnerable

The white charger upon which Sky Television chief Vic Wakeling rode to the rescue of the embattled Nationwide League clubs with a four-year £95m deal may soon be viewed as a beast of a different hue if, as it appears, he is preparing the ground for a lengthy period of jousting over his next negotiations.

Contracts have been renewed with relative ease in the boom years since Sky exploded onto the scene in 1992, but now Wakeling is reported to be considering making an offer next year for the Champions' League. The implication is that if Sky lands the Champions' League there will be less cash available to make any increase to the existing agreement that pays the Premiership £1.6bn for 66 live matches per season and 44 pay-per-view games over three years.

There are also rumours that in order to tie up their priority programming of the Premiership and the Champions' League Sky would be prepared to abandon its FA Cup live coverage in 2003 on the grounds that the only real interest lies in Europe and the Premiership.

I would not be surprised, as the Champions' League rights have been fragmented by the sport's European governing body, Uefa, into various smaller packages, if the collective bargaining position of the Premier League were questioned by the European Commission. Although three years ago the League successfully fought off a challenge mounted by the Director-General of Fair Trading in the Restrictive Trade Practices Court and in the Netherlands and Spain similar actions have been resisted by the football authorities, Italian clubs have exercised the right to negotiate their own individual contracts for league matches since 1998.

Flowing from the Premier League's collective bargaining rules are its procedures for income redistribution. Divided equally between the clubs is 50 per cent of the revenue (with an amount equal to half of each club's share paid to clubs relegated in either of the two previous seasons), 25 per cent is divided on merit based on league position, and 25 per cent is paid as facility fees to the clubs whose matches are shown.

If, in fact, a challenge from Brussels does transpire, and the Premier League is forced to justify its methods of retaining an element of internal competition, it would be ironic that it should come at the very time its leading members are mounting yet more challenges to the Football Association's control.

On the eve of the FA Cup final, familiar bellicose sounds were emanating from finalists Chelsea about the level of commercialism now attached to the old competition. Soho Square was lacking in its consultation procedures and over-enthusiastic in its appropriation of the clubs' facilities on Cup dates, it was alleged. Premier League officials were charged with the task of resolving these matters, failing which they would withdraw their clubs from the Cup and their players from England duty and maintain a self-perpetuating Premiership independent of the sport's world governing body, Fifa, with no relegation.

As if the sound of the pot calling the kettle black wasn't sufficient for the FA to contend with, it was then faced with demands to pay the wages of players selected for England duty. Its immediate response was to say that, as it already contributed £65 million to the professional game, this would merely be a case of about four wealthy clubs taking an even bigger share of the cake.

I recall the late Len Cearns, chairman of West Ham United, fighting a long rearguard action against the proposal to call the new league the FA Premier League, because he did not want anything to do with Lancaster Gate. Nevertheless, he was a real gentleman of the old school, anything but a rebel. Had the clubs been able to forge a closer link with the governing body, as is the case in Germany, for example, there would have been more inherent protection in the constitution for the smaller top-flight clubs like West Ham when their larger brethren became rapacious or when the system came under threat from outside.

Moreover, the FA must be feeling dangerously exposed as it hopes finally to commence the long-delayed £710m Wembley project. If the clubs and Sky become troublesome over the Cup, it doesn't augur well for the borrowing. Lenders look for stability with key stakeholders pulling in the same direction.

Vic Wakeling, meanwhile, reflects on a job well done. Sky currently have contracts ending in three different years, so he can phase his negotiating strategies accordingly. When the Premier League was set up in 1992 its groundbreaking deal with Murdoch's men smashed the terrestrial stranglehold on English football. Now, following the demise of ITV Digital the wheel has turned almost full circle and Sky's monopoly of live football is threatening to become absolute. The next two years will be absolutely critical to the future of the game.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com