League Championship side Leeds United started legal action against the Football League to "attempt to dismantle the collective selling of TV rights" and win the right to sell its own games, according to Nick Harris of the London DAILY MAIL. The "extraordinary and unprecedented move has sent shockwaves" across the 72 League clubs that play below Premier League level. The move could "destroy a main income stream," the £100M ($145M)-a-year clubs collectively earn from Sky Sports. Although Leeds' "highly controversial" Owner Massimo Cellino has put a "temporary stay on the process," Leeds' Championship match at home to Middlesbrough on Monday is only going ahead after the Football League was "forced to take out a legal injunction against Leeds to make them honour the fixture." It is believed to be the "first case ever, certainly in the English game," where any governing league has had to "legally force a club to play a fixture," and sources said that rival clubs are "aghast" at Leeds' behavior. All 72 clubs were represented at a private meeting staged in Milton Keynes on Thursday, when League CEO Shaun Harvey "briefed them on what had hitherto been a completely secret legal dispute with Leeds and Cellino." The clubs were told Leeds launched its "initial legal to torpedo the collective selling agreement last Autumn." Sources said that execs "were stunned as Harvey explained that such a challenge might theoretically destroy the league's current five-year broadcasting deal with Sky, currently in its first year." There would be no guarantee of a Cellino legal victory, "but no guarantee "he would fail either." Leeds is arguably the "biggest" club, in multiple ways, currently outside the Premier League. If it won the right to do its own TV deals, then the club would "expect to hugely increase" the share of TV money it receives each season from around £2M ($3M) to "perhaps tens of millions." Other "bigger" clubs might follow suit and the majority would be "left facing a financial deficit" (DAILY MAIL, 2/13).
