Post by Dave on Feb 17, 2011 17:48:56 GMT
One day we are moaning about decisions taken by the European General Court and the next we want to thank it.
Fifa and Uefa had challenged a decision allowing the UK government to designate the World Cup and European Championships as free-to-watch events.
But the European General Court (EGC) has ruled that UK football fans can continue to watch major events on free-to-air TV in future.
Both the World Cup and European Championships are on the UK list of "protected" events of national sporting importance.
Fifa and Uefa as you might have expected, had argued the current set-up interfered with their ability to sell television rights at the best price.
The two football bodies had argued that any games featuring England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland would have still been shown on TV for free, as would have the finals and semi-finals of the tournaments.
But the rest of the 64 World Cup matches and 31 European Championship matches would not have been free in the UK.
Uefa had said the listing infringed its property rights, as it resulted "in a restriction of the way in which the applicant may market the television rights to the Euro championships.
It had also said that showing the entire tournament on free-to-air in the UK had led to "a disproportionate and unjustified distortion of competition on the relevant market".
Fifa earned a minimum $2bn in TV and media rights deals for the South Africa 2010 World Cup. And Uefa said turnover during the three-week Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland was $2.04bn, with more than half the cash coming from the broadcasting rights' sales.
It is all about money as it aways has been and sod the football fans, its what is really wrong with the game these days.
Still at least this is a good ruling for a change.
Fifa and Uefa had challenged a decision allowing the UK government to designate the World Cup and European Championships as free-to-watch events.
But the European General Court (EGC) has ruled that UK football fans can continue to watch major events on free-to-air TV in future.
Both the World Cup and European Championships are on the UK list of "protected" events of national sporting importance.
Fifa and Uefa as you might have expected, had argued the current set-up interfered with their ability to sell television rights at the best price.
The two football bodies had argued that any games featuring England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland would have still been shown on TV for free, as would have the finals and semi-finals of the tournaments.
But the rest of the 64 World Cup matches and 31 European Championship matches would not have been free in the UK.
Uefa had said the listing infringed its property rights, as it resulted "in a restriction of the way in which the applicant may market the television rights to the Euro championships.
It had also said that showing the entire tournament on free-to-air in the UK had led to "a disproportionate and unjustified distortion of competition on the relevant market".
Fifa earned a minimum $2bn in TV and media rights deals for the South Africa 2010 World Cup. And Uefa said turnover during the three-week Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland was $2.04bn, with more than half the cash coming from the broadcasting rights' sales.
It is all about money as it aways has been and sod the football fans, its what is really wrong with the game these days.
Still at least this is a good ruling for a change.
), but it's not. The European Union is a political and economic union; as such the ECJ's judgements are about ensuring that nation states, organisations and individuals comply with EU law. The ECHR on the other hand rules on the question of human rights brought almost exclusively not by states or corporations, but by individuals. It is a unique and, in my view, impressive institution which whilst far from perfect is something which should be defended and explained.