UEFA HOPES TO earn more than €600 million (£410 million) from the sale of TV rights to Euro 2008 after ditching its longstanding policy of central selling to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). European football’s governing body has instead awarded the rights to the competition — to be held in Switzerland and Austria — to SportFive, a media agency, which will auction them to the highest bidder in each national market.

The new strategy is expected to generate a 20 per cent increase on the income from Euro 2004 in Portugal. However, matches featuring the home nations will still be protected from being shown exclusively on pay-TV. In the UK, the entire tournament is listed as one of the “crown jewel” events that must be shown on terrestrial TV. BSkyB will be unable, therefore, to have any exclusive games, unlike rival pay-TV providers across Europe. The BBC and ITV would be expected to bid jointly for any matches involving England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Uefa’s move signals an erosion of the power of the EBU. Fifa, football’s world governing body, also favours selling to several European broadcasters instead of just one. The deadline for offers to the 2010 World Cup rights is this Friday.

MORE THAN 10,000 football administrators are expected to attend a trade show this summer dedicated to the grass roots of the game. VCM, the West Sussex-based events company behind the event on July 16 and 17 at the ExCeL centre in London’s Docklands, is inviting the 500,000 volunteers in football who run local clubs, leagues and school teams to buy kit, balls, flags, goals, specialist insurance, books and videos from more than 80 exhibitors.

There will also be a 2,500-seat indoor training pitch, which will hold coaching sessions. It is thought to be the only trade show for the national game in the UK. Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football, will be at the press launch on March 2.

GREEK FOOTBALL HAS thrown its efforts into a bid to host the European Championship finals in 2012 as the country ponders ways to use the 36 Olympic venues that are draining the national budget. Greece is among ten football associations, making up eight bids, wanting to host the lucrative competition, whose viewing figures are behind those of only the Olympic Games and the World Cup.

Uefa said it had received expressions of interest for solo bids from Azerbaijan, Greece, Italy, Romania, Russia and Turkey and joint bids from Croatia/Hungary and Poland/Ukraine. While Italy poses strong competition, it hosted the European finals in 1980 and the 1990 World Cup. Greece will have strengthened its case by surprisingly winning Euro 2004. The bill for the 2004 Olympics in Athens last summer has soared to €9 billion (£6.1 billion).

FANS OF SV Hamburg, the Bundesliga club, have appealed to the German football federation to refund the cost of their tickets to a cup game against Paderborn, a regional league side, after the result was found to have been fixed by the referee. Up to 1,800 supporters travelled to the away match in August, which Hamburg lost 4-2, having led 2-0, after Robert Hoyzer sent off their forward and awarded two penalties to the lower- ranked opposition.

A federal inquiry has discovered that the game was one of seven matches rigged by the young referee in favour of Croatian betting syndicates in exchange for at least €50,000 and a plasma television screen. The widening scandal was described as “organised crime” by Werner Hackmann, chief executive of the Bundesliga.

The growing scourge of illegal betting has become an urgent issue for Uefa, which last week signed a deal with Betfair, the online betting exchange, to monitor unusual gambling patterns. Uefa will be able to request information about specific individuals suspected of corruption.

ashling.oconnor@thetimes.co.uk

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