Early Doors - Your morning briefing blog

Setanta bubble bursts

Wed Jun 24 09:05AM

If the demise of Setanta tells us anything, it is that the gap between the Big Four and the rest is even bigger than we thought.

We all know about the gulf in wealth between the Premier League's haves and have-mores, but in terms of interest and support, the margin is even greater.

Setanta needed 1.9 million subscribers to stay afloat, but fell well short principally because their package of live rights did not include enough matches involving elite teams.

Theirs were the third-choice games, tucked away on a Saturday or a Monday evening, while Sky continued to trumpet its Grand Slam Slam Dunk Home Run Shock 'N' Awe Sundays with full Big Four privileges.

And that was that. Because, at the end of the day, who is going to pay £10 a month to watch Middlesbrough v Fulham or Sunderland v Portsmouth?

In the mass market, people only care about the Big Four. It is the same story on this and every other website.

Interest in articles involving the top clubs vastly outstrips the rest of the division. So you only have yourselves to blame the next time you see an 'Alvaro Arbeloa breaks toenail' story on these pages.

There is a second tier comprising Tottenham, Everton, Aston Villa, West Ham, Manchester City and, er, Newcastle, but the bottom tier is ratings poison - unless, of course, they are getting six thumped past them at Old Trafford.

Go abroad and what do you see? Knock-off English football shirts being sold everywhere. But you won't find any 'Little 16' shirts on that market stall in Marrakech. Apart from the odd anomaly like Fulham's popularity in Korea, it is a solid diet of big names.

One of the more amusing consequences of the 39th game plan would have been Kuala Lumpur coming to terms with the fact that it had been assigned Stoke versus Burnley.

For all the supposed financial might of English football, the Big Four are propping everyone else.

Former culture secretary Andy Burnham has called for a more even distribution of wealth, but already the big are subsidising the smaller to the tune of tens of millions per season.

Half of TV money is split evenly, a quarter is based on performance and a quarter on the number of televised matches. In 2007/08 Manchester United received the most, £49m, and Reading the least, £30m. It is not parity, but it is a long way removed from what each club could fetch if they sold their own TV rights on the open market.

ED isn't calling for greater inequality - just for recognition that the appeal of the Premier League is reliant on a worryingly small percentage of teams.

Can things change at the top? Chelsea have shown that they can, but only if you have pots of cash and Jose Mourinho. A decade ago, nobody would have put them in the country's four biggest clubs.

Then a run of seven consecutive top four finishes, four domestic cups and a Champions League final made them hard to ignore. But Manchester City must start winning things before they can truly refer to themselves as 'massive'.

Although Setanta's demise was painfully predictable, Early Doors sympathises with the 200 people who have lost their jobs (well, most of them - that Mourinho puppet can rot in hell).

Fans never took to Setanta because they didn't care about competition. Most of them already had Sky, and now they were being asked to shell out more cash for the same football.

And they had to go to the pub to watch England games, a situation made worse by the lack of any highlights package on terrestrial TV.

You have to say the writing was on the walls when travelling England fans chanted "We hate Setanta" during the away World Cup qualifier against Andorra.

It was the most virulent attack against a TV institution since the Tartan Army unveiled their spectacular "We hate Jimmy Hill, he's a poof, he's a poof" campaign.

Finally, here's a pub quiz question that may rear its ugly head at some 'noughties' nostalgia night in the not-distant-enough future: Which player was the subject of the final top story in the setanta.com football section?

The answer: Dinamo Zagreb striker Mario Mandzukic.

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Douglas watch: After mocking Brazilian wunderkind Douglas yesterday, Early Doors asked you to defend the name's honour, and you obliged with a fine selection.

British table tennis great Desmond Douglas

Fictional teen doctor Doogie Howser, M.D.

TV's most Scottish man Dougie Donnelly

Isle of Man capital Douglas

Hollywood royalty Douglas Fairbanks

Former US Army chief Douglas MacArthur

Internazionale right-back Douglas Maicon

Boxing giantkiller James 'Buster' Douglas

Punchline and man without a spade Douglas

First President of Ireland Douglas Hyde

Actor and cleft chin purveyor Kirk Douglas

All Black and car park menace Doug Howlett

- - -

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Sometimes you have to spend a little bit more. You can't compete in the top four of the Premier League unless you spend some money. We were looking for a player of quality and also somebody who is British because of the new Champions League rules. Glen Johnson fits both categories." Rafa Benitez does his best to convince himself that £17m Johnson is a bargain.

FOREIGN VIEW: Another Manchester United transfer target looks like slipping through their fingers if you believe Marca (which you probably don't). Real Madrid have apparently given up trying to sign David Villa and are instead in advanced talks with Lyon over Karim Benzema.

COMING UP: Spain v USA in the Confederations Cup, plus all the usual transfer silliness. And Early Doors hereby grants you permission to get your tennis on.

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