Sky, BT and Premier League shift blame after Klopp comments

The Premier League, Sky Sports and BT Sport have all shifted the blame after Jurgen Klopp blasted this season’s fixture scheduling.

Klopp laid into Sky and fellow broadcaster BT in an argument with interviewer Geoff Shreeves following Liverpool’s comprehensive victory over Leicester on Sunday.

The German’s complaints had threatened to bubble over a couple of days prior but were only aired after he was asked why he waited until the 89th-minute of the 3-0 win to make his final two substitutions.

Among the many issues Klopp and his fellow Premier League managers have voiced this season are the five-substitutes rule and the fixture scheduling, which will see his Liverpool side visit Brighton at Saturday lunchtime after facing Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.

“If we keep playing on Wednesday and Saturday 12.30, I’m not sure if you’ll finish the season with 11 players,” he said in an interview not aired on UK television.

“All the top six are the same. All the top six and seven. But I know [broadcasters] don’t care, and that’s the problem.”

The Daily Telegraph report that ‘the Premier League has made no approach to Sky or BT to discuss a resolution’ to the matter.

They quote a source from one of the broadcasters as saying: “Klopp needs to speak to the Premier League. That’s where this needs to be addressed.”

Furthermore, The Sun say Premier League executives are standing by their stance that clubs ‘were responsible for this being the most congested season on record’. Which seems harsh in the midst of a global pandemic.

They add that Sky and BT ‘are united in their view’ that the onus is on the Premier League to address the matter first ‘as they cannot simply change their legal contracts on a whim’.

Any change to the current TV contracts would require consent from all three parties, as well as the clubs themselves. But it seems as though no-one is willing to take the initiative.