Everton and Liverpool could lose millions in TV money due to the postponements caused by Covid cases in recent weeks.
Everton had four games postponed due to a large number of Covid cases, with games against Leicester City twice being called off after the Foxes claimed they were unable to raise a team, as well as games against Newcastle United and the Boxing Day clash with Burnley, a game where a postponement was requested due to Covid cases in the Everton camp.
Liverpool had their Boxing Day clash at home to Leeds United postponed, as well as their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg with Arsenal earlier this month, a game that has since been played.
Everton's clash with Leicester was due to be televised, as was the clash with Newcastle, while Liverpool's Anfield encounter with Leeds United was also due to be shown on television.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, Premier League clubs who have suffered Covid postponements could be hit in the pocket in a fairly big way, with the broadcasters had gaps in their schedule for prime slots, particularly over the festive period, with rearrangements potentially falling into less attractive slots on the calendar.
Premier League clubs had to hand back more than £300m in rebates to broadcasters last year owing to the impact that pausing of the season had on schedules at the start of the pandemic, and the Daily Mail suggests that further rebates could be enforced owing to the amount of games that were lost to Covid postponements that had been scheduled for live broadcast, with 14 of the 22 games called off having been due to be televised.
The Premier League's media rights deal is what sets it apart from the rest of world football, and the reason that investors are so keen to put their money into English football's top tier.
For the next six-year broadcast cycle the Premier League will surpass £10bn in revenues for the very first time, with the international market now worth more than the domestic one that Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video pay so much for.
With those vast sums paid comes an expectation that the value of the product will not diminish, and with some games that were slated for lucrative spots such as Boxing Day and prime weekend slots, moving them to a midweek later in the season will likely adversely affect viewership and advertising revenues that had been booked. That means the broadcasters will want some of the money that have spent returned to them, which will come from the clubs who have been recipients.
For the 2019/20 season, Everton brought in £87.6m from domestic and international TV rights, the latter being worth £55.8m. They also brought in £19.6m in facility fees, accrued in relation to the amount of times a team features in a live broadcast. That raised the total sum for those three streams to £107.2m.
For Liverpool over the same accounting period, while the figures for winning the Premier League weren't included in the Reds' accounts owing to the season completing after the cut off date for the financial year, the Anfield club brought in £134.1m
That figure was reached through the equal share that all clubs receive of £35m, facility fees of £31m and £71.3m from overseas payments.
The Premier League are understood to be looking at introducing new rules that would require the proof of four positive Covid cases among squad members for clubs to be able to request postponements after some clubs took umbrage with the amount of postponements occurring for limited Covid cases.
The Mail on Sunday reports that some clubs could seek legal action due to the nature of changing rules mid-season, aggrieved at the way the Premier League has handled the situation, where they were accused of opening the door to for measures to be taken advantage of by some clubs after they allowed postponements due to the rising cases of Omicron last month and earlier this month.
Now, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters wants only Covid absences to count towards any postponement request, with the Daily Mail reporting that four positive cases would be required as a minimum before postponement could be discussed, rather than automatically triggering a cancellation.
