Better late than never for Premier League clubs during COVID-19 disruption

This (typically) excellent thread by @SwissRamble demonstrates the potential financial impact of postponements and cancellation of football fixtures in the English league pyramid due to the ongoing disruption from COVID-19.

Some clear themes emerge:

1.  Premier League clubs have a huge financial incentive to ensure the remaining games of the 19/20 season are played, whether behind closed doors or otherwise, due to the reported £750m impact on the domestic TV rights deals if games are not played. However, with rights already sold for subsequent seasons, reducing commitments for future years will have a similar financial impact and the longer the disruption lasts, the time period for rescheduling matches will be truncated, providing a significant challenge.
2.  Below the Premier League, matchday income is far more significant meaning playing games behind closed doors is unlikely to be a solution to financial problems.
3.  All but the very biggest clubs are likely to face significant cash flow problems over the coming months.

As noted in a previous article (https://blog.charlesrussellspeechlys.com/post/102fnlw/beware-the-yellow-vests-cancellation-of-sporting-events-and-rights-holder-broa), sports media rights contracts typically deal expressly with the financial implications of cancellations and apportion liability between the parties and contractual provisions often include;

•  obligations on the rights holder to reschedule the cancelled events;
•  a mechanism for reduction in rights fees if the events cannot be rescheduled (or is rescheduled for a less-favourable time) – sometimes with a grace provisions allowing a certain number of cancellations without penalty; and
•  force majeure provisions which provide a release for the rights holder from liability (possibly including no reduction in rights fees) if events is cancelled due to a force majeure events.

These clauses are being carefully scrutinised by relevant parties in existing rights deals and no doubt will be even more heavily negotiated in the future.