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By David Gold
May 16 – Football’s governing body FIFA and UEFA, the most powerful regional confederation, are to contest a legal ruling preventing them from charging supporters to view World Cup and European Championship games.
The organisations are to take their case to the European Court of Justice to contest a decision in the General Court which stopped them from charging British television audiences to watch their flagship tournaments.
Television rights expert Daniel Geey told the BBC: “The grounds of appeal open to UEFA and FIFA appear to be relatively limited.
“They [FIFA and UEFA] cannot not simply repeat arguments that were already set out and heard by the General Court and expect the decision to be overturned.
“UEFA and FIFA are now in injury time if they are to pull off a last minute winner.”
World football’s governing body is also attempting to prevent Belgium from showing the World Cup for free.
Deals for the World Cup in 2014 are already in place, meaning that if FIFA was to win its case, it could only charge viewers from 2018.
“Although not inconceivable, the odds of snatching victory appear to be stacked against football’s two most powerful football bodies,” added Geey.
“With such operators more likely to pay larger amounts for exclusive premium content, both organisations would argue increasing commercial revenues would be further invested back into the game.”
The World Cup is FIFA’s main source of income, and it has become increasingly reliant on the tournament in recent times, though as a result of revenues from last year’s competition in South Africa it posted huge profits for the last four year period.
UEFA similarly recorded over £2 billion ($3.2 billion) in turnover from the European Championships in 2008, with more than half of that coming from TV deals.
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