SFA to rake in over £26m in new broadcast deals

THE Scottish Football Association have secured a new television deal with Sky and the BBC which will bring in more than £26million over the next four years.

The new broadcast contract comes into force at the beginning of the 2002-03 season and will cover international and cup football up to the end of the 2005-06 season.

Under the agreement, Sky will broadcast all of Scotland’s home internationals exclusively live across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, including all home qualifiers for the 2004 European Championship and 2006 World Cup.

Scotland Under-21 internationals will also be beamed live on Sky for the first time while BBC Scotland have secured exclusive highlights of all Scotland’s home matches, including Under-21 qualifiers.

The BBC have also snapped up rights to broadcast live Berti Vogts’ first match in charge of Scotland, next month’s friendly in France.

Sky Sports will also show up to eight live matches in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup each season. Their coverage will include a live match from each round from the third round onwards plus the final, which will be screened exclusively by them outside Scotland. Sky’s new deal also gives them rights to a live replay from each of those rounds.

BBC Scotland will show the final live in Scotland, as well as live coverage of at least one other tie plus extended highlights and goals packages.

Radio Scotland will have live commentary from every round of the cup.

SFA chief executive David Taylor said: "This contract with Sky and BBC Scotland is part of an overall television and advertising agreement with IMG which will earn the SFA a minimum of £26.5million over the next four years."

Sky Sports managing director, Vic Wakeling, added: "Our relationship with the SFA is one of the longest we have enjoyed with any rights-holder and we are delighted to be covering extra games."

The deal follows a £5.1million sponsorship tie-in with supermarket chain Safeway, which was launched last week.

Taken from the Scotsman