ECB facing pressure to drop prices in Hundred franchise sale
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) could be asked to accept less than the £520m offered by new investors for 49 per cent of the eight Hundred franchises if they refuse to hand over control of the competition’s next television contract, which will begin in 2028.
The ECB wants to continue its successful policy of selling the TV rights for domestic cricket collectively, which currently brings in around £220m a year from Sky Sports, in opposition to demands from the new owners for them to sell the Hundred separately.
In addition to wanting to run the process themselves, several of the new owners have expressed the belief that the Hundred franchise should keep the revenue from its TV contract rather than allow the ECB to redistribute it across the sport.
The issue has led to the eight-week exclusivity period for negotiations between the ECB and the buyers to be concluded to be extended until the end of April, as the Telegraph first reported last week.
All parties have privately expressed confidence that the matter can be resolved, although several sources have suggested that the new owners could push for discounts if they are unhappy with the progress of the negotiations.
The ECB stunned the world of sport by achieving total enterprise valuations of between £79m and £295m for the eight franchises in the Hundred auction that took place in January, which generated income of £520m for the English game.
Accepting lower offers may be preferable to reducing their overall control of the Hundred or re-running individual franchise auctions, which would be a logistical nightmare, not least as several of the beaten bidders went on to buy other teams.
Interest in Orient expressed
American TV executive David Gandler has confirmed that he is in talks to buy Leyton Orient.
A spokesperson for Gandler, the founder and chief executive of streaming platform fuboTV, told Morning Wire that he is funding the proposed Orient deal independently having sold his 17 per cent stake in Ligue 2 club Paris FC last year.
Gandler is understood to have offered around £12m up front for just over 70 per cent of Orient to current owner Nigel Travis, with further payments worth up to £6m contingent on the club’s future performance.
Premier League eyes £150m regulator saving
Premier League clubs are hoping to save themselves up to £150m in payments to the EFL by helping to delay the introduction of the independent football regulator until after the summer parliamentary recess.
While the passage of the Football Governance Bill, which passed its third reading in the House of Lords last month and will return to the Commons after Easter, is accepted as inevitable even by the Premier League due to its volume of cross-party support, pushing it back until the autumn could save each club millions.
The football regulator’s first act will be to set up a so-called Whole Game Review, which will have the powers to recommend a new funding settlement between the Premier League and the EFL. The review will be time-capped at a maximum of 18 months, so delaying it until the autumn could mean that it does not report until the end of the 2026-27 season.
The Premier League and EFL have been negotiating over a new financial distribution deal for several years without reaching an agreement.
The Premier League came close to making a formal offer on a package worth an extra £925m to the EFL over six years 12 months ago, but failed to get the backing of their clubs to make the proposal. Further delays lead to the maintenance of the status quo and more savings for the bigger clubs, so there is little incentive for them to make an offer.
Premier League clubs have been active in lobbying for changes to be made to the Football Governance Bill, particularly removing the regulator’s proposed powers over parachute payments, while West Ham vice-chairman Baroness Brady submitted dozens of amendments to the legislation in the House of Lords.
Mullen takes reins at Jockey Club
The Jockey Club has finally got its man in new chief executive Jim Mullen, whose arrival from Reach PLC was announced ahead of the flagship Grand National meeting this week.
Morning Wire can reveal that Mullen, who is regarded as a heavy hitter in racing as a former executive at William Hill and Ladbrokes Coral, was previously offered the Jockey Club job six years ago but chose to join Reach, the publishing company that includes the Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Star among dozens of other titles.
After Mullen declined the role the Jockey Club went on to recruit BT Sport chief executive Delia Bushell, a disastrous appointment which culminated in her resignation after less than a year after an independent review concluded there were grounds for taking disciplinary action against her for “gross misconduct,” including allegations of bullying. Bushell subsequently issued legal proceedings against the Jockey Club but withdrew them without making a claim.
Mullen had a mixed spell at Reach after instituting cost-cutting measures that led to hundreds of job losses, but following his appointment by the Jockey Club he was hailed as “a great human being” by its interim chief executive, Charlie Boss.
His immediate challenges include lobbying for an exemption for racing from the affordability checks on punters, an area in which his betting industry contacts could prove useful.