€400m TV deal may be last of its kind for elite

UEFA have announced a new three-year deal for Champions League rights with Sky and ITV — but England’s top clubs face a major drop in their income from the competition if a European ruling goes against them.

The deal for 2012-2015 is understood to be worth £400m, similar to the current agreement.

But William Gaillard, adviser to UEFA president Michel Platini, said a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case involving the Premier League and an English pub landlady could force a major shake-up in the sale of TV rights across the continent.

Gaillard said: “This may force us to sell the rights on a Europe-wide basis, which would prevent us from identifying individual national TV pools. That will be bad news for clubs in big TV markets such as England.”

The Premier League also fear the case — their legal battle against Portsmouth publican Karen Murphy, who has used a Greek satellite decoder to screen live matches — could affect their TV income.

The EU’s advocate general Juliane Kokott has already advised that the case means that selling TV rights in separate countries within the EU goes against European law. The case is now being dealt with by the ECJ, with a decision expected in the late summer.

At the moment, UEFA splits Champions League payments among the 32 clubs in the group stage, half depending on how far they progress and half on the value of their country’s TV deals.

The current £400m deal with Sky and ITV for the UK rights is the biggest in Europe and has seen English clubs earn between £20m and £35m annually from the Champions League. Beyond 2015, the future is uncertain.

Under the new deal, ITV will have first pick of the match to show live on Tuesday night and highlights, while Sky Sports have the rights to broadcast live all Champions League matches except for the games on ITV. Sky also has the rights for delayed broadcasts and highlights on both nights.

Gaillard fears that those who say the ECJ often does not follow the advocate general’s advice may be burying their head in the sand.

He said: “Most of the time the ECJ follows what the advocate general has said, and the rest of the time partially follows that advice.”

If the case goes against the Premier League it could mean the clubs having to have one single TV deal covering the whole of Europe, rather than domestic TV rights and rights for other individual countries being sold separately.

This would affect Ireland too, as it could mean that no matches kicking off at 3pm in England on Saturday could be shown anywhere in Europe.