THE European Commission backed away yesterday from taking legal action against the FA Premier League, paving the way for a deal in which at least two broadcasters will win the rights to show live football from 2007. A deal is soon likely to be struck in which the football body will probably agree to auction six packages of 23 games with no one broadcaster having the rights to all the bundles of matches on offer.

The emerging agreement could mean that fans will have to subscribe to more than one broadcaster if they are to catch all the games available in what is expected to be the most competitive auction in years.

Yesterday, Neelie Kroes, the EC’s competition commissioner, wrote to Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, asking to clarify the way the football body wants to auction the rights to transmit live games from the 2007-08 season.

Significantly, the letter did not reveal any significant points of disagreement. Instead it asked the Premier League to make a “number of refinements”, concentrating on how the auction will be conducted rather than the number of games that should be reserved for a second broadcaster.

The Premier League had previously offered to make five packages of 28 games available, as a concession to the EC, but this appears not to have been taken up.

Live football coverage has been dominated by BSkyB since 1992 — it paid £1.02 billion for the present three-year deal. News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has a 37 per cent stake in the satellite broadcaster.

Until as recently as a week ago, the EC was threatening the Premier League with legal action in a dispute over how to ensure that two broadcasters have “a viable and meaningful share” of live TV rights in the future.

At one point the commission suggested to the Premier League that the rights should be split on a 50-50 basis. But the football body was opposed to such a deal, fearing that it would lead to massively reduced income for clubs, as broadcasters would be willing to pay more for exclusivity.

Kroes, a Dutchwoman, looks to have backed down from this position, allowing the Premier League to strike a nearexclusive arrangement with one broadcaster, which could win the right to show 115 games, an amount that it is hoped will still generate a high payment.

A deal on these lines will please Sky, which was hoping for the “minimal regulatory intervention”, but is likely to disappoint NTL and ITV, which had been lobbying club chairmen directly, in the hope they would back the 50-50 proposal.

If an agreement is reached, the Premier League plans to kick off the rights auction in March or April and expects to award them over the summer. The BBC, Five and Setanta Sports, the broadcaster of Scottish Premierleague games, have also expressed interest.

• England has been shortlisted to stage the Under-21 European Championship, with Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Turkey and Sweden also in the running. The Uefa executive committee will announce the host nation on December 15.

THE LEADING CONTENDERS

BSkyB: The satellite broadcaster has held the live rights since 1992. Pays £333 million a year today.

NTL: Britain’s biggest cable company, now buying Telewest.

ITV: Free-to-air broadcaster has held talks about mounting a joint bid with NTL.

Five: Now owned by European giant, RTL, the broadcaster has more resources than before.

BBC: The corporation wants to prove that it is serious about showing sport again.

Setanta: Private broadcaster that holds the rights to Scottish Premierleague football.

BT: Telephone giant wants to build pay-television business.

Venture capital: Private equity firms hoping to create a new broadcaster have shown interest.