LONDON (Brand Republic) - BBC director general Greg Dyke has accused Fifa, world football鈥檚 governing body, of being hypocritical in its decision to sell the rights to the World Cup to the highest bidder after calling for universal TV coverage of the tournament.
Speaking at a European Broadcasting Union Conference in Brussels yesterday, Dyke expressed his anger at Fifa for selling the rights to German group Kirch instead of the European Broadcasting Union.
The attack comes as the BBC and its commercial rival ITV struggle to negotiate a mutually satisfactory price with Kirch for the UK rights to broadcast the World Cup.
Dyke said, 鈥淭he BBC and ITV have made what we regard as a fair and reasonable offer which is still massively more than we paid in 1998.鈥
He added, 鈥淢ore than 20m people in the UK watched the key matches in the 1998 World Cup in France on TV. It is audiences like these that persuaded European and British legislators that there are some events which are so much part of the fabric of life that they should be universally available -- without payment -- to all TV viewers. The World Cup is one of those events.鈥