Addleshaws scores lead role on Football League broadcast deal

Addleshaw Goddard is bringing football back home to terrestrial television, scoring the lead role for the Football League in its £264m media deal with the BBC.

BBC Sport has bought the rights to broadcast the Coca-Cola Championship and the Carling Cup final for three years, starting from the 2009-10 season, meaning people will no longer have to pay to see live football.

Sky Sports also got involved in the deal, snapping up the rights to Coca-Cola Football League matches and the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, a knock-out competition between teams in League One and Two.

The deal represents a 135 per cent increase on the Football League's existing broadcasting deals and will bring an £88m windfall to Football League clubs each season for the duration of the deal.

Addleshaws sports head Andrew Price was lead partner, working with associates Adam Aldred and Danny Downs. The Football League is a long-time client of the firm.

Price said: "There is a very buoyant rights market at the moment. The Football League and its media advisers have been working to package up the rights to make them as attractive as possible to broadcasters. We worked on making the package legally compliant."

He added that England's exit from Euro 2008 will do little to dent the media's interest in the game. "People have been talking about its effect on the economy and the pub trade but it will not have a big effect on marketing."

Sky Sports legal head Richard Verow and Brendan Knox-Peevels at BBC Sport did not instruct law firms.