LONDON - England's Professional Footballers' Association will receive nearly $600m (175m pounds) of the game's television income over the next 10 years as part of the deal that averted the game's first strike.
The PFA called off its strike threat on Friday after announcing that it had reached a compromise with
the Premier League, Football League and Football Association over its share of broadcasting revenues.
The union will have total discretion over how it spends the money. Its income will also be protected in the long term. For every one per-cent increase in television revenue in the future, the union will see an increase of 0.75 per cent in funding.
For every one per cent fall, however, its share will drop only 0.5 per cent.
"We have an agreement on television strongly in place for 10 years," Gordon Taylor, the PFA chief executive, said.
"The actual amounts have been identified as (pounds sterling)17.5m per year. The deal in total is worth (pounds sterling)175m. We will honour this agreement and we expect the leagues to honour all our other agreements.
"If they don't, we've seen the reaction the players will provide. They gave an indication of their strength and solidarity. They can be quiet and dormant until their backs are up."
- INDEPENDENT
