Wigan chairman Whelan wants equal share of TV money to close gap with 'Big Four'

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Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has blasted the way football bosses hand out television money and believes the cash should be split evenly to help close the gap between the 'Big Four' and the rest of the Premier League.

Clubs receive around £500,000 for every live match they are on television but Whelan says because the likes of Wigan and Reading feature much less on Sky, Setanta plus the additional overseas channels, they in turn receive less income than the glamour clubs - putting them at a disadvantage before a ball has even been kicked.

And Whelan insists this has to be stopped if other clubs want any chance of catching Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal.

He said: "The big clubs are on [television] 10, 15, 20 times and they get £10 million or so and that is not right.

"If you look at rugby league and I don't believe in everything they do, but the television money is split equally amongst the teams and I still believe if they want this game to be brought closer together and more competitive we have to distribute funds on a much fairer basis.

"You can have Manchester United and Liverpool but they can't play themselves.

"They have to play Wigan and Birmingham and all the bottom teams so why should they get the priority, at least try and bring the four clubs back towards the other teams."

Whelan also referred to Kevin Keegan's comments from last weekend about how the 'Big Four' are turning the Premier League into a boring spectacle.

He said: "Kevin Keegan is a wise man and he's been in football a long time and there is a lot of truth in it.

"You and I know that next year, there are four teams and one of them are going to win the title and the others will be in the top four. That is not competition, we should move all kinds of things to get competition back into the league."