Premier League clubs are set to resist calls to allow cameras into dressing rooms and interviews with managers during matches.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, has called for football to embrace the kind of access that the American sports allow broadcasters but there is strong resistance, especially at the bigger clubs, to permit such changes.
Gary Neville, Sky Sports’s leading pundit, said that he disagreed with the proposal, while senior club officials spoken to by The Times said that there would be stiff opposition.
One official said: “There is already a feeling that the demands on managers and players are too onerous, and quite a few of the big clubs opposed it when the last rules came in which made it mandatory for a player and the manager to do an interview a couple of hours before kick-off. Managers will hate the idea of having to do an interview during a match when they are trying to concentrate on what is happening on the pitch. Dressing rooms are supposed to be sacrosanct, a private area for the players and the staff.
“Having said that, if there is a lot of money for the next TV deal hingeing on greater access for cameras then you can see some pressure coming.”
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In BT Sport’s rugby union coverage, head coaches are often interviewed in the middle of matches.
Green said: “It’s not just dressing-room cameras — our director of rugby interviews during the games, where most of them were very happy to talk, makes for better television. If you were to get José Mourinho to give us 20 seconds during the half it could possibly be the most interesting part of the game. There are multiple other ideas, football should open up to more creative ideas.”