Scottish soccer: SFA signs TV deal

The Scottish Football Association have secured a new television deal with Sky and the BBC which will bring in £26m (€42.6m) in the next four years.

The new broadcast contract comes into force at the beginning of the 2002-03 season and will cover international and cup football up to the end of the 2005-06 season.

Under the agreement, Sky will broadcast all of Scotland’s home internationals exclusively live across the UK and Republic of Ireland, including all home qualifiers for the 2004 European Championship and 2006 World Cup.

Scotland Under-21 internationals will also be beamed live on Sky for the first time while BBC Scotland have secured exclusive highlights of all Scotland’s home matches, including Under-21 qualifiers.

The BBC have also snapped up rights to broadcast live Berti Vogts’ first match in charge of Scotland, next month’s friendly in France.

Sky Sports will also show up to eight live matches in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup each season.

Their coverage will include a live match from each round from the third round onwards plus the final, which will be screened exclusively by them outside Scotland.

Sky’s new deal also gives them rights to a live replay from each of those rounds.

BBC Scotland will show the final live in Scotland, as well as live coverage of at least one other tie plus extended highlights and goals packages.

Radio Scotland will have live commentary from every round of the cup.