UEFA not concerned by court TV ruling
LONDON - European football's governing body UEFA said on Wednesday that a court ruling changing the way fans can watch sport would have no significant impact on it, although it was not happy with the decision.
On Tuesday, Europe's highest court opened the way for sports fans to watch live matches through foreign television services.
The ruling potentially throws into question the value of rights bought by Britain's BSkyB, which owns the majority of live rights for Premier League matches, and other European broadcasters such as Sky Deutschland.
"We don't think that this ruling will have a significant impact on the way we sell our rights, we will continue to sell our rights on a country-by-country basis, because this is what people want," UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino told a Leaders in Sport conference in London.
The legal ruling was sparked by English pub landlady Karen Murphy who was fined for screening live English Premier League matches via a Greek pay-television decoder.
The court ruled that the sale of rights on a country-by-country basis breached EU law.
Infantino said UEFA did not agree with the ruling.
"I don't think it will be a big problem but of course we are not happy with the ruling, there are some fundamental mistakes," he said.
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"How can you say that the value of English football is the same in England as it is in Greece? Obviously they are not the same."