The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected an appeal by football’s governing bodies against a ruling that the World Cup and Euro Championships must be shown on free-to-air TV in the UK.
Both the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) had been rumoured to be planning on selling broadcasting rights for the tournaments to BSkyB.
However, in 2011, the European General Court said that the UK could keep the events on a list of “protected” events of national sporting interest broadcast for free, meaning that the two tournaments may not be sold exclusively to pay-for TV firms.
Both FIFA and UEFA appealed the decision, saying they could not sell the events fairly for their real value, but this latest ruling means that the contracts signed by the BBC and ITV, who had secured the rights to broadcast the World Cup finals in 2014 on the basis that the content was guaranteed to be shown free-to-air, must now be honoured.
Under EU broadcasting law, governments are allowed to designate big sporting events as being of “major importance” to their country, even though this goes against the spirit of EU competition law. However, governments are required to formally set out their justifications to the European Commission.
The ruling also has implications for other sports and reduces the prospect of sports governing bodies being able to generate extra revenue by breaking up broadcasting rights packages on a pay-per-view basis.
In a statement, FIFA said it was “disappointed” by the ruling, claiming that the rules would reduce its ability to raise money from future competitions, while UEFA warned that amateur football would suffer from the lost revenue.
FIFA earned over €1.7bn from the broadcasting rights for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, while UEFA is estimated to have made more than €1.3bn from last year’s Euro-2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine.