BT Sport bring out the big guns as Gary Lineker’s Champions League stars say: ‘This is the place to be for next three years’

BT Sport revealed their plans for next season’s Champions League
They made the most of Sky Sports chief Barney Francis’s own goal
Francis played down the importance of Champions League in blog
Glenn Hoddle, who has moved from Sky Sports to BT Sport, said on Tuesday: ‘This is the place to be for the next three years’

Published:
21:30 GMT, 9 June 2015

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Updated:
06:50 GMT, 10 June 2015

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The battery of BT Sport Champions League pundits, presenters and executives formed an orderly queue on Tuesday to make the most of a remarkable own goal by Sky Sports chief Barney Francis.

BT’s lavish launch of their new service, which includes live broadcasts of all 350 Champions League and Europa League matches, plus the Super Cup, next season, means millions of TV viewers face a massive change in order to see matches from the top two European competitions.

Sky customers who have previously enjoyed Champions League matches as part of their sports package will now have to decide whether they will pay extra to receive BT’s coverage.

(From left) Steven Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand have joined Gary Lineker and Glenn Hoddle at BT Sport

BT Sport brought out the big guns to announce their plans for next season’s Champions League coverage

Sky Sports chief Barney Francis took a dig at the Champions League after his channel dropped viewers

Even BT subscribers who receive BT Sport free as part of their broadband will have to spend more to watch European matches.

Francis had tried to undermine BT by claiming on the eve of their arch-rival’s announcement that TV viewers’ interest in the European flagship tournament was in rapid decline and that the Barclays Premier League was ‘seven times bigger’ for Sky.

But BT’s all-star line-up, including hosts Gary Lineker and Jake Humphrey and analysts Steven Gerrard, whose deal was agreed this week, Rio Ferdinand and Glenn Hoddle, begged to differ.

Hoddle, who has signed a three-year contract with BT in preference to an offer to remain with Sky, led the way in dismantling Francis’s deliberately timed comments.

Francis had wanted the first word before BT promoted their exclusive coverage of the Champions League, having paid £897million for a three-year deal to take the tournament away from Sky and ITV.

Hoddle said: ‘This is the place to be for the next three years. The Champions League is the creme de la creme, the best tournament in the world.’

Francis, pictured last year speaking at a convention, played down the importance of the Champions League

Gerrard, who will play for American side LA Galaxy next term, poses with the Champions League trophy

Ferdinand said: ‘This is unquestionably the greatest club tournament in the world and it’s a great feeling to be part of it.’

Gerrard, who will contribute to BT while finishing his playing career with LA Galaxy, also had his pick of TV offers and added: ‘It’s the ultimate competition that every player and every supporter wants to be involved in.’

Francis had also astonished BT by somehow making a virtue on his blog of Sky’s Champions League attendances falling by 38 per cent and not a single European match featuring in their top 40 matches.

BT Sport managing director Delia Bushell, a former Sky executive, said: ‘We were surprised that Sky should make so much of their Champions League ratings going down, especially when the company still shows this fantastic event in other territories in Europe. We are going to raise the bar, which will help Sky raise their game as well.’

Jose Mourinho helped to launch BT Sport’s new television coverage but Sky say it is not too valuable

Sportsmail’s graphic shows which broadcasters will show each competition next season

Lineker, whose new five-year BBC contract allows him to host Match of the Day and BT Sport’s Champions League coverage in a £3m annual package, said in reference to Francis’s blog: ‘Sky no longer wanting the Champions League bodes well for the future.’

Lineker had a brief Twitter spat with his new BT colleague Jake Humphrey two years ago when the newcomer suggested pundits fresh out of the dressing room gave more incisive and informative analysis.

Lineker interpreted that as a dig at Match of the Day veterans Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson but said on Tuesday: ‘The most important thing is the pundits have knowledge to share and the panel here certainly have that.’ Humphrey called the BT panel: ‘The best line-up I’ve ever seen.’

BT Sport, as Sportsmail revealed last week, will be charging an extra £5 for their European content, which includes eight games a night being screened simultaneously, allowing viewers to dip in and out with red button technology.

BT Sport are also promoting that the 351 matches will still be free for those who take BT TV. And the sales pitch that will no doubt be countered by Sky is that fans can watch all the live football available for £779 per year on BT compared to £1,116 on Sky.

In another move, BT Sport will make a minimum of 12 Champions League and 14 Europa League matches available to anyone, including non-subscribers, via a new free-to-air channel called BT Sport Showcase. In addition, they announced the launch of the first Ultra HD channel in Europe, BT Sport Ultra HD, which will open with the Community Shield between Chelsea and Arsenal on August 2.

John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: ‘When we launched we promised to make televised football far more accessible and affordable. We have opened the market to millions of new customers and we want to build on that as BT Sport becomes the undisputed home of European football.’

Sportsmail’s graphic shows the star-studded line-up fronting BT Sport’s Champions League coverage

Ferdinand takes to the stage with presenter Lineker as BT Sport launch their coverage of European football

NO SKY REDUCTIONS

Sky will not be offering cheaper rates to their existing subscribers, despite the loss of prestigious Champions League broadcast rights to BT.

Sportsmail contacted their call centre on Tuesday to ask — on behalf of football fans — for a reduction but were informed that while new subscribers will be offered cheaper rates, no such concession will be made to current Sky viewers.

But remarkably the only football figure at BT’s Olympic Park headquarters who was not entirely on message about the Champions League was their extravagantly paid ambassador, Jose Mourinho.

He said: ‘I’m desperate to win the Champions League. I’m not obsessed with it. When Chelsea won it, they did it with their worst side of the last decade.’

Meanwhile, Sky Sports defended Francis’s controversial blog, saying he was trying to make the point that the Premier League was a far more valuable commodity for the network and that BT always talk a good game.