Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp recently slammed TNT Sports over the Red's recurring 12.30 fixture schedule in the Premier League. It followed Liverpool's game against West Ham where their title race fell apart.
In a scathing response, Sky TV director accused Klopp of winning and blaming the wrong protagnoists.
"Jurgen Klopp is whining at the scheduling of Liverpool matches. Klopp blames TNT for picking Liverpool for the early Saturday slot, but the real culprit is closer to home," Darcey writes on LinkedIn.
"Broadcasters do not call the shots here. The PL designs the packs of rights, broadcasters bid for what is offered. Pack A comprises 32 matches in the early Saturday slot. TNT pays £325m pa [per annum] for its games, delivering risk-free income for PL clubs, then tries to make a business selling subscriptions.
"Having designed pack A and taken TNT’s money, it’s a bit rich to blame TNT when they schedule games in their slot. They have no choice. The PL does impose restrictions: each PL team must feature at least once and no PL team more than six times.
"Liverpool has been picked six times. Don’t like it? Fine, change the rules, but expect and accept less revenue.
"Of course it is safer for Klopp to blame a broadcaster, than blame the PL for designing the packs, or his Liverpool bosses who signed it off.
"Anyway, there’s no respite in sight. The next PL contract jumps from 200 to 270 live games, chasing more revenue, so more games will move from 3pm Saturday.
"Worse, Liverpool has qualified for the Champions League. A better strategy would be the Europa League; if you play Thursday night you can’t be picked for early Saturday," Darcey concluded.
