UEFA offers TV compromise after Commission warning

Date: 22/11/01

By Laurence Frost

UEFA, European football's governing body, has offered to change the way it sells the rights to broadcast Champions League games, following a warning by the European Commission that it was breaking EU competition rules.

The concessions emerged as Mario Monti, the competition commissioner, gave the clearest signal yet that the EU executive was likely to stage a similar crackdown on the UK's Premier League.

The Commission told UEFA earlier this year that its role in selling exclusive rights to air matches for up to four years was damaging competition between broadcast companies.

"We have indicated to the Commission that we have the intention of going to the broadcast marketplace in a different way the next time around," said UEFA spokesman Mike Lee. UEFA was "seeking to be creative about future broadcast agreements", he added.

Sources familiar with the case say UEFA's offer includes pledges to reduce rights contracts from four to three years and to end the "gatekeeper" system under which all rights are sold to just one broadcaster in each country. The changes would take effect from 2003.

The sporting body is also understood to have offered to separate sales of internet and third generation mobile phone rights from traditional coverage. The Commission had earlier complained that companies were stifling technological development by buying up the new media rights and leaving them unused, to protect their larger investments in TV rights.

Monti's spokeswoman Amelia Torres said it was too early to comment on UEFA's response to the legal objection sent to the organisation in July.

The UEFA Champions League earns more than € 530 million in TV rights every year, most of which is paid to the 72 participating clubs.

The EU executive believes increased competition for the rights would bring more matches to consumers' screens at lower subscription prices. Separate investigations are also under way into rights sales by Germany's Bundesliga and the UK's Premier League.

In a sign that the Commission could be preparing to stage a broad crackdown on broadcast rights, the EU competition chief has warned that a probe into the UK league will go ahead - with or without its cooperation.

"The Commission is proceeding with an in-depth factual examination of the broadcasting arrangements of the Football Association's Premier League," Monti said in a written answer to a question from UK Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy. Unlike the other two competitions that have come under the EU microscope, the British organisation has so far resisted Commission demands that it notify details of its rights deals for approval. "This will not prevent the Commission from examining the case on its own initiative," Monti said.

It is understood competition officials have begun meeting broadcasters, supporters' organisations and UK club bosses to gather information on the Premier League contracts. The league says it intends to supply all the relevant contract data to the Commission once they have been prepared. "We've done these deals in the full knowledge of the competition requirements applied by the European Commission," said spokesman Dan Johnson.

The latest developments came as the UK Professional Footballers Association (PFA) called a strike by players from 1 December, after negotiations stalled over its share of TV rights income.

The PFA, which runs welfare schemes for disadvantaged and former players, is demanding 5 of the total € 2.65 billion in rights payments for Premier League matches over three years.

UEFA, European football's governing body, has offered to change the way it sells the rights to broadcast Champions League games, following a warning by the European Commission that it was breaking EU competition rules.