It means Villa, Manchester United and Arsenal - who are all owned by Americans as well - have come out against any change. Club insiders at Villa, owned by Randy Lerner, say they believe the current model, where overseas rights are sold collectively and split equally among all 20 Premier League clubs, remains the best system. That echoes the feelings at United and Arsenal - both those clubs' chief executives have spoken in favour of the current system recently. Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre opened a can of worms by declaring the club were being disadvantaged by the current system. Ayre said: "Is it right that the international rights are shared equally between all the clubs? "At some point we feel there has to be some rebalance on that, because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs." Ayre also declared that "in Kuala Lumpur, there isn't anyone subscribing to watch Bolton" - prompting Bolton manager Owen Coyle to suggest he may regret mentioning the club. Coyle said: "We have a fantastic club at Bolton Wanderers, the Premier League is made up of 20 clubs and we have the best league in the world. "I can understand people having self-interest at stake, which this obviously is, and that is up to them. "If he has woken up this morning and thought 'I regret mentioning Bolton Wanderers', then that is up to the man himself to make a phonecall. If he doesn't, then it will sit with his conscience." Coyle added: "I think it is all hypothetical, because it won't happen. You would need 14 clubs out of the 20 to vote for that. "Maybe it has been brought up for conversation purposes or to try to cajole one or two into it, but to my mind it won't ever happen."
