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Wigan chief can't believe what he is hearing as Liverpool plan to sell TV rights overseas

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan is passionately opposing Liverpool's idea for Premier League clubs to sell their TV rights overseas.

The Reds have raised the issue in the past year, saying that English clubs should be able to negotiate their own TV deals outside the country - much like Real Madrid and Barcelona do.

But Whelan feels it would kill the heart and soul of the English game and even feels Liverpool supporters would be against the notion.

"I have just read his [Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre's] comments and I find them diabolical - I just can't believe what he has been saying," Whelan told Goal.com.

"They are thinking 'how can we get more money?' You won't get more money by killing the heart and soul of the Premier League and killing the heart and soul of football in England.

"We invented the game and we have still got the finest league in the whole world and some of the finest supporters in the whole world and they want to rip the whole thing up."

Whelan added: "The worst thing for English football is for teams like Liverpool - the top four let's say - who want to get rid of virtually half the Premier League. We will finish up like the Spanish league with just two teams in it, no competition, no anything, no heart and soul in the league.

"What we have is the finest league in the whole world and what Liverpool are calling for would absolutely wreck it. The likes of Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves, Sunderland and Newcastle couldn't compete.

"If they ever take away the fairness of the Premier League it will ruin the Premier League as a competition. Would Liverpool play Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal every week? It can't be so. It is absolutely scandalous."

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