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Derby's demise softened by £2.6m per point
Last updated at 19:56pm on 16.05.08The pain of Derby's wretched season in the Barclays Premier League will be eased considerably by the fact that they have banked more than £2.6million per point. Paul Jewell's team finished bottom of the table with an all-time low of just 11 points, winning only one of their 38 games, but received a windfall of over £29m in prize money and TV revenue for their miserable efforts.
It explains the sheer desperation of Championship clubs battling to win promotion through the playoffs to the promised land and their share of the incredible £815m annual hand-out, even if it is only for one season.
Jewell: Team finished bottom
Promoted West Bromwich Albion and Stoke will already have the pound signs flashing in their eyes. Derby and the other relegated clubs, Birmingham and Reading, will lose out even though they are still guaranteed £22m of parachute money over the next two years if they fail to bounce straight back up.
Compared to Derby, champions Manchester United pocketed a meagre £570,000 for each of their 87 points.
The Premier League are proud of the collective bargaining aspect of their TV deal, which ensures Derby are paid only £20m less than the champions — far closer than in some countries in Europe where clubs are allowed to strike individual deals with television companies.
United banked almost £50m, nearly £13m in prize money for winning the title plus their share of the money from the first year of the new and improved TV deal. Twenty five of their 38 games were screened live, which helped boost their windfall.
All 20 clubs receive an equal payment of nearly £13.5m from the domestic TV package, plus an extra £9.3m from the overseas deal. Then they receive extra money each time one of their games is screened live or "near live".
Arsenal, despite finishing third in the title chase, earned more than Chelsea because they were live on television five times more, which may be another reason why Roman Abramovich would like to see more entertaining football from his team.
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