In February, the European General Court judged that the UK could retain the events on a so-called ‘crown jewels’ list of protected events of national sporting interest. The BBC and ITV have already secured the rights to broadcast the 2014 World Cup, so any potential shift towards a pay-TV model cannot take place until the 2018 tournament in Russia.
FIFA and UEFA are disputing the fact that all games in the tournaments are being kept on free-to-air TV, with the games involving the home countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland not under discussion. FIFA has also launched an appeal against Belgium showing all World Cup games on free-to-air, and both cases will now go to the European Court of Justice.
A spokesman for the European courts told the BBC that appeals processes were currently taking up to 18 months from start to finish, and that any actual hearing may not get under way for up to a year.
“The grounds of appeal open to UEFA and FIFA appear to be relatively limited,” Daniel Geey, an expert on TV rights deals at Field Fisher Waterhouse, told the BBC. “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.”
