EU court says World Cup can be shown on free TV

The sale of broadcasting rights is a massive source of cash for the sport's governing bodies, but Europe's second highest court said EU states have the right to prohibit so-called "crown jewel" events from being shown on pay-TV alone.

"This is good news for people who want to watch important sporting events on television without having to pay for it," said Jonathan Todd, spokesman for European digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes.

FIFA, the organiser of the World Cup, had challenged decisions under an EU directive allowing Belgium and Britain to make every single game available on free TV.

UEFA, the European football governing body, sought to dismiss a similar decision allowing Britain to show all Euro championship matches.

Todd said the court's decision will also apply to lists of sporting events submitted by Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the four footballing nations in the British state, each failed to qualify for the 2008 Euro tournament, as did Belgium.

Only England of the five countries involved in this case featured at all during last year's World Cup.

Europe's second highest court sided with the governments in Brussels and London, however, saying they could designate the world's biggest football tournaments as "events of major importance" for their societies.

"A member state may, in certain circumstances, prohibit the exclusive broadcast of all World Cup and Euro football matches on pay television, in order to allow the general public to follow those events on free television," it said.

UEFA said it was "disappointed to learn about today's judgement by the general court of the European Union."

"UEFA will now study the decision in detail in order to decide on next steps," said Europe's football governing body in a statement.

FIFA and UEFA had argued that not all tournament matches can be considered events of major importance to the public.

The court disagreed, giving a real football fan's analysis as to why every game counts in the World Cup and Euro championship.

The entire tournaments should be regarded as "single events" because the participation of teams in the semi-finals or finals depend on results from games that are not considered "prime" or "gala" matches, the court said.

"England fans will want to watch the other matches across the groups to see who their team may be playing in the knock-out stages," said European Parliament member Emma McClarkin, of Britain's Conservatives.

"These matters are in the national interest and they should be free for the nation(s) to watch," she said.

FIFA and UEFA had provided statistics to back their arguments that the non-gala or non-prime matches were not of major importance to Belgian and British society.

But the court said viewing figures from the last World Cup and Euro tournament show that "they have in fact drawn large numbers of viewers, a significant proportion of whom are not usually interested in football."