Premiership chief dismisses UEFA investment concerns

LONDON (AFP) - The Premier League's chief executive dismissed concerns from UEFA over the commercialisation of European football in an interview published Wednesday.Speaking to the Financial Times, Richard Scudamore also called on governments to strengthen copyright legislation because he fears that the league's costly media rights are being threatened.Addressing comments from UEFA President Michel Platini, made in a letter addressed to all European leaders last week, Scudamore said: "The Champions League is more rampantly commercial than the Premier League.""I have a formula which redistributes money far more widely, equitably and evenly than UEFA does, and we retain far less here with far more modest offices. UEFA as an edifice is huge."He continued: "Twenty years ago, there was no TV deal, the grounds were awful, the game was in a complete state. It is intvestment that has made it how it is. What was Mr (Prime Minister Gordon) Brown supposed to do? Stop investment?"Platini warned in his letter that football was at risk from businessman whose primary motive was profit and he called on governments for their help as "the last hope for a healthy and balanced future of European football.""A serious threat hangs over the development of European football: the malign and ever-present influence of money," Platini wrote in his letter, which was published in the Daily Telegraph last week.Scudamore also called on governments to tighten copyright law so that the Premier League's valuable media rights were not infringed upon, telling the FT: "People's immediate reaction is things are going well with TV rights therefore everything is ok.""But you're there selling your rights through the front door and someone's coming in through the back door, stealing all your pictures, images, putting it all around the world in a form that's easily accessible."What you've got is an odd virtuous circle. The more value we generate and the more valuable our rights become, the more people want to see us and the more people in a sense want us not to do that." 2007-09-26 03:25:44