EU court set to rule in favour of armchair fans
An advocate-general at the European Court of Justice rejected appeals by Fifa and Uefa against a ruling that the matches should be open to bidding from pay TV companies.
The AG — whose formal “opinion” will now be considered by the full court before a final ruling — said national authorities had the right under European Union law to ensure “broad public access” to competitions deemed as “events of major importance for their society”.
Fifa and Uefa, who organise the World Cup and European championship finals respectively, claim an EU directive on television broadcasting which allows member states to block restrictive broadcast rights to major national events breaches their commercial freedom to sell exclusive screening access.
Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly said free-to-air broadcasting of soccer was an important right for fans in Ireland.
“Watching live sport has long been an extremely popular source of entertainment and I welcome moves to ensure that there will be no pay-per-view for the World Cup or European championship,” he said.
“The EU strives to promote sport in all capacities, including the viewing of live sport. If the court adopts the advocate-general’s opinion, it will further our commitment to sport in the EU.”
Advocate-general Niilo Jaaskinen said the EU member states alone were “competent to draw up the national lists intended to ensure that events of major importance for society are broadcast on free television”.
The aim of allowing national authorities the right to draw up lists of events of major importance was to balance the right to provide services in the area of television broadcasting with the need to protect the right to information “within the context of the cultural diversity of the member states”.
Judges making a final ruling early next year are not bound by the Advocate-General’s legal advice, but follow it in about 80% of EU cases.
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