article: The size of Sky Sports’ gamble in paying an astonishing £11millon a game to retain their Premier League TV rights has led to the company having to re-address their entire sports strategy. And overlord Barney Francis addressed staff this week to present his way forward - ‘Fit for the Future’ - with the station needing to make considerable changes to afford their gigantic football bill. This will see Sky concentrate on their live rights in every sport while reducing the support programming and those leaving the network are not being automatically replaced. Sky Sports will pay £11millon a game to broadcast Premier League football for three years starting in 2016 . Graeme Souness, Thierry Henry and Ed Chamberlain on Sky's Super Sunday coverage of the Premier League . Francis, who prefers to speak off the cuff, was using a prepared script on this important occasion and one department asked for a copy to show Sky personnel who missed the meeting. But he declined to issue duplicates, telling his troops he didn’t want your Sports Agenda columnist to get hold of the text - such is the paranoia in Isleworth. Sky claim the strategy talk - rather than plain cost cutting - was preparing the station for the varied demands of a multi-platform future where a Thierry Henry video on Sky’s YouTube channel can become more important than traditional programme making. The technical problems with the charter plane which forced the England team to stay overnight in Turin after the game weren’t the only flying concerns related to the Italy match. The BA flight bringing in ITV Sport’s football pundits Glenn Hoddle, Ian Wright, Lee Dixon and the cream of Fleet Street had to abort landing close to the ground because of the cross-winds meaning the plane was wrongly aligned with the runway approach. These same Italian cross-winds and another rather more serious runway direction miscalculation by the pilot in poor weather saw the plane carrying the great Torino side of 1949 crash into the Basilica of Superga which stands on the hill overlooking the airport, killing all 31 on board. Relationships between the FA and the England Travel Supporters Club - already at a low point over the switching of double loyalty rewards from away trips to Wembley - will be further strained by the loud singing of songs in Turin that only bring embarrassment on English football. Understandably the FA are in no mood to act on their fans’ complaints about ‘Two caps for Wembley, you’re having a laugh’, when the same travelling set of supporters still sing ‘F*** the IRA’ and ‘Where were you in World War Two’. It’s also been noted that while senior members of the Fans Supporters Federation are quick to speak out about loyalty issues, they are less talkative about those tasteless chants. England fans sang anti-IRA songs during Tuesday's friendly draw with Italy at the Juventus Stadium - there is no suggestion that the fans pictured in this image where involved in the chants . It would never have happened under the fanatical reign of former FA head of security Ray Whitworth, now working for Major League Soccer. But England manager Roy Hodgson took himself off for a long walk around Turin in his England training gear to while away some of the time before kick-off. Inevitably that meant good-humouredly running the gauntlet of England fans and their demands for photos, selfies and autographs. Kane not able to stop . The FA continue to micro-manage the supposedly free-for-all media interview mixed zone which players have to go through after matches. But for England, this means that even man of the moment Harry Kane, who is always happy to chat to the media after club games, isn’t allowed to stop because the FA decree who is going to speak. The FA say they go to great efforts to prepare their young players for England media scrutiny, which includes a briefing by Gary Neville, and it was decided that Kane would not do mixed zone duties. England's latest star Harry Kane was recently micro-managed by the FA to not speak in media mixed zones . Football agent Tony McGill continues his search for ‘peace of mind’ by proving he was wrongly cut out of the £300,000 fee agency SEM received for the Gavin McCann transfer from Aston Villa to Bolton eight years ago. It means McGill is willing to commit to well over double that amount hiring top legal help for his private prosecutions against McCann, Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, former boss Sammy Lee and others including retired agents Jerome Anderson and Jeff Weston. Gavin McCann's (right) transfer to Bolton from Aston Villa in 2007 earned agency SEM a fee of £300,000 .
highlights: Sky Sports will be paying £11millon a game to broadcast games in 2016 .
  Three-year deal means Sky are re-addressing their entire sports strategy .
  ‘Fit for the Future’ plan will see reduced programming support .
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