Sky seal Spanish soccer deal

David Beckham’s exploits in Spain will be covered live on Sky after the satellite broadcaster today landed the contract to cover Spanish football for the next three seasons.

The deal was done only 36 hours before the new La Liga season kicks off tomorrow and the first Real Madrid match will be their game at Villarreal on Tuesday night.

Madrid’s opening match tomorrow will not be screened because Real Betis are still disputing the terms of the new domestic TV deal, and Barcelona’s match against Athletic Bilbaof will be shown instead.

Vic Wakeling, Sky Sports managing director, said: “La Liga has long been seen as one of the world’s strongest leagues. It has famous clubs, magnificent stadia and some of the world’s biggest stars.

“And now David Beckham has joined Real Madrid the interest is unbelievable. Sky Sports viewers can follow his progress, watch live games every week and see every goal in La Liga within our biggest ever season of football – it’s a great signing.”

Sky will show 96 live matches throughout the season including one game each Saturday and one each Sunday. From next month, there will be a new weekly highlights show on Monday evenings.

The deal means that Sky will show more than 400 matches live during the season, the most ever.