iWant! Apple stalk TV deal for Premier League

Computer giants Apple are showing interest in joining the billion-pound battle for the next set of live Premier League TV rights when the tender goes out before the end of the season.



The Premier League is seen as the type of premium content that will help establish Apple TV in the UK and boost iPad sales, while the iTunes subscription service infrastructure is already in place.



The involvement of Apple - and their great multimedia rivals Google are also expected to make similar soundings - would give the PL a hugely competitive market at a time when the price of other TV sports rights are in decline.



Life through a lens: Computer giants Apple want a bite of the Premier League

The three certain bidders will be Sky, who paid £1.6billion for their current packages, ESPN, who say they are determined to buy more PL content, and Middle East network Al Jezeera, who also have the resources to break the Rupert Murdoch stranglehold on the Premier League.



In contrast the FA have had to accept a 30 per cent-plus drop in the price of a two-year FA Cup and England renewal with ITV. The £42m-a-year deal has been delayed while talks took place over increasing the price for more England matches, but no definite extra dates have been agreed.



Crystal clear

Dulwich Hamlet’s 17-year-old centre back Michael Chambers, watched by all the major Premier League clubs in the Ryman League, has local side Crystal Palace in unlikely competition with Liverpool and Manchester United for his signature. Chambers missed the last Dulwich game in expectation of an imminent move.

A case for the defence

The way Liverpool's evidence was castigated in the FA report of the Luis Suarez racism case raises many questions for the American owners, including why the club employed Premier League lawyer Peter McCormick to represent them.



The humiliation included McCormick blaming ‘bad drafting’ for Suarez’s ‘unreliable evidence’. McCormick was recommended by Liverpool club secretary Zoe Ward, who worked for his Harrogate-based law firm before moving to Anfield.



She is also a trustee of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation, chaired by McCormick. Liverpool say Ward did not have the final decision on the lawyer appointment that involved the Fenway Sports Group.



It is understood McCormick, whose Premier League work is not expected to be affected by the Liverpool fiasco, felt hamstrung from the start by the club’s unwavering defence of Suarez.

Indian takeaway

Jimmy Anderson, ranked world No 2 bowler in Tests, will spend the first week on tour in the United Arab Emirates deciding whether to put himself forward for the Indian Premier League.



Anderson, 29, had indicated he would play in the Twenty20 competition this year but is having second thoughts because of the busy England schedule that takes priority and a desire to take 300 Test wickets.

Offer: James Anderson is considering an offer from the IPL

Sky react to pub ruling

Sky Sports have reacted to Portsmouth landlady Karen Murphy winning her legal battle to show Premier League games via an imported satellite from Greece.



The PL rights holders have written to licensees warning them they are breaching copyright by screening a PL feed that does not show Sky’s pint glass or red dot logo that authorises pub broadcasts.



But increasing numbers of fans are now watching live matches on laptops picking up foreign feeds via links advertised on Twitter. The PL, aware of this latest threat to rights values, are banking on the Digital Economy Act making it easier to police the internet.



Oh Lordy

MCC chairman Oliver Stocken, centre stage of the Lord’s in-fighting over the termination of the £400million renovation, says in his covering letter in the committee election document that no candidate will be recommended by appearing on the ballot paper with a star, as was the past custom.



Yet Stocken calls it ‘critical’ the committee have a representative from MCC’s Structure Working Party, chaired by his close supporter and former Premier League chief executive Peter Leaver, who is one of nine nominees for four vacancies.



A senior MCC member described Stocken’s tacit support for Leaver as ‘outrageous’. An MCC spokesman said Stocken’s letter also backed other candidates.





