Soccer told to pay for school pitches or lose TV rights

PREMIER LEAGUE football clubs are to be ordered by the Government to give more money for school playing fields and park pitches in return for retaining the right to negotiate television deals collectively.

Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has summoned Britain's top soccer clubs to a meeting, following their court victory over the Office of Fair Trading last week, to discuss ways in which they can help boost grassroots football.

The restrictive practices court ruled that the Premier League's collective negotiations were not against the public interest. The football clubs had argued for collective bargaining on the grounds that it enabled them to act as generous benefactors; they have agreed to give 5 per cent of their income - likely to total around pounds 50m - to grassroots facilities.

But Mr Smith will warn the Premier League that it will keep the right to make lucrative television deals only if it demonstrates its commitment to the community. Ministers are considering setting up a joint fund with football authorities to ensure that payments are kept up.

Mr Smith wants to discuss proposals that include the setting up of hundreds of mini soccer pitches - with scaled down goals - for primary school children, building more astroturf pitches and funding improvements to local park facilities. "We want to create a something for something culture," one government source said. "The Premier League has won dispensation to negotiate collectively and in return football has to fulfil its responsibility."

Although soccer is at present the nation's richest sport, the same principle would apply to other sports if they cashed in on television rights.

Mr Smith's intervention comes as the Government prepares new proposals to allow competition authorities to investigate bids to take over companies with assets worth less than pounds 70m.

This would include many of the smaller Premier League clubs and could bring them greater protection from media takeover bids. Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, is set to publish these proposals in a consultation paper on reform to the rules on monopolies and mergers, which also seeks to end the role of politicians in the process - apart from in special cases such as the media and defence. The paper specifically points out that the issues were raised at the time of the pounds 623m bid for Manchester United by Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, ultimately blocked by the Government.

Protection would also be extended to many information technology firms, whose value is in knowledge or software rather than in hard assets. The proposal is that cases should be assessed in terms of turnover or market share.