Leading clubs could lose at least £30m in total if Setanta fails and the Premier League is forced to sell on the 46 games the pay-TV company is due to screen next season to a rival broadcaster, reports The Guardian. The Irish company faces yet another crucial day on Friday, when it is due to pay £10m to the Premier League. If it misses that deadline, its rights will revert to the League and Setanta is likely to go into administration.

Enders Analysis, a media consultancy, says that those rights, which Setanta secured in a three-year deal worth £130m a year, would fetch less than £100m if they were to be auctioned off again.

That would equate to a loss of around £1.5m for each of the League's 20 clubs, although the biggest sides, who receive more television money, would be worst hit.

Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis, said that Setanta's problems illustrate that it paid too much for the current rights.

"If there is anything that other candidate (bidders) ... must surely have learned by now, it is that Setanta has been shelling out considerably more for its rights than it has been able to monetise.

"Accordingly, we think there is a strong chance that resold PL rights for the 2009-10 season would fetch well below the current value of £131m - quite possibly below £100m," she said.