Sky winning TV fight for Champions League

Sky Sports have re-established their stranglehold on live football by being awarded four of the five packages to cover the Champions League from the 2009-10 season.

Sky will pay £80million a year for three seasons to broadcast European football's premier club competition, won last season by Paolo Maldini's AC Milan, and have not given up on making it a clean sweep when UEFA rule on the final package on Thursday.

Sky will screen their first and second choice of games on the Tuesday night, plus the second pick on Wednesday and the remaining group of games. But they are fighting it out with the BBC and ITV for the final slot - the first choice of matches on the Wednesday.

UEFA's decision could lead to there being no live coverage of the tournament on terrestrial TV, but Sky are determined to win out after seeing Setanta secure a deal to cover the FA Cup and England matches along with ITV from August 2008.