The television rights for the new Uefa Nations League were on the brink of being awarded to Sky Sports on Wednesday night in a move that would end the free-to-air status of England matches.
The Telegraph has learnt that Sky is poised to secure exclusive coverage of the first two editions of the biennial tournament, which begins in 2018, following a tender process that closed last month.
ITV is set to retain England’s qualifiers for the World Cup and European Championship until 2022. But it would only be able to show highlights of the Nations League, the first time live coverage of an entire senior international tournament would be denied to terrestrial viewers.
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ITV and Sky will pay a combined £200 million for the rights to England matches between 2018 and 2022, double the current deal.
The Nations League was created by Uefa two years ago in one of the biggest overhauls of international football. It will replace most friendly matches and will kick-off during the international window in September 2018.
The competition will divide Europe’s 54 countries into four divisions known as ‘Leagues’, with 12 teams in League A, 12 in League B, 14 in League C and 16 in League D. Sides will be placed in leagues depending on their Uefa national team coefficients, with the top 12 – which England are likely to be among – in League A.
Every league will then be subdivided into four groups of three or four countries, who will play each other home and away between September and November of even-numbered years.
Each group winner in Leagues B, C and D will be promoted, while every side which finishes bottom in Leagues A, B and C will be relegated. The group winners of League A will advance to a ‘Final Four’ tournament in the summer of odd-numbered years to determine the Nations League champions.
Wildcard places at the Euros are also on offer for group winners in other leagues via a play-off.
The Nations League was Uefa’s solution to what had been dwindling interest in international football outside of the World Cup and Euros. The competition will ensure more head-to-head matches between Europe’s best sides and should give England the chance to test themselves regularly in a competitive environment against the likes of Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Holland and Portugal.
Securing the Nations League would therefore be a real coup for Sky, which is also expected to retain the exclusive rights to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup and European Championship qualifying games until 2022.
It would not be the first time England games would have been live on pay-TV, with Sky having shown plenty of them in the past.
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However, the loss of an entire tournament to terrestrial television may prove controversial, with the World Cup and Euros having always been protected for free-to-air coverage.
In October, the BBC and ITV retained the rights to the Euros until the end of the 2020 edition, the semi-finals and final of which will be at Wembley. They will also share the next two World Cup tournaments. But, as a new event, the UK’s so-called ‘Crown Jewels’ legislation will not apply to the Nations League.
ITV secured all of England’s games for their Euro 2016 and 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign – and friendlies – in May 2013 in the first contracts to be negotiated under Uefa’s central sales strategy. That led to the rights to the matches of all European nations being packaged up and distributed by the governing body, which guaranteed the FA a minimum income of between £20 million and £25 million per year.
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