TV Rights Split Soccer Clubs

The English Premier League, home to the country's best soccer teams, is at the top of its game. It recently negotiated huge price increases outside the U.K. for broadcast rights to its matches, and it's drawing top players from all over the world as megarich foreign owners pour money into their teams. But some English clubs complain that the foreign largesse isn't benefiting all teams equally, while others say it's hurting the sport.

In a sign of the EPL's global appeal, the league sold overseas TV rights for 2010-2013 games for a total of £1.4 billion ($2.25 billion). That dwarfs the sums secured by other leagues in Europe, including Spain's La Liga, home to Barcelona and Real Madrid. It's now negotiating regional deals to show Premier League matches overseas for the next three seasons, and it has already secured big price increases. But in contrast to other leagues in Europe, the EPL shares the money from its deals equally among its 20 clubs. Liverpool, the club from the Beatles hometown, says the arrangement hurts it. If it could negotiate its own overseas broadcast packages, it believes it would profit from its global popularity, a result of its 1980s heyday.