THE EUROPEAN COURT of Justice today ruled that EU member states could ban the exclusive showing of World Cup and other major international football games on pay-TV.

The decision is a major blow to soccer’s main governing bodies, particularly FIFA and UEFA, both of which get huge amounts of revenue from the pay-TV broadcast rights.

The ECJ upheld the European Commission’s decision to approve a request from Belgium and Britain to reserve the broadcast rights for the World Cup for free-to-air TV.

Britain also asked for similar treatment for European Championship games.

A commission spokesperson said that several countries including Ireland – had drawn up similar lists of games they wanted to reserve for free-to-air television.

“In those circumstances, the Court holds that the Commission did not err in finding that the United Kingdom’s categorisation of all World Cup and Euro matches and Belgium’s categorisation of all World Cup matches as ‘events of major importance’ for their societies are compatible with European Union law,” the court said.

European football chiefs responded to the ruling: “UEFA is disappointed to learn about today’s judgement by the General Court of the European Union.

UEFA will now study the decision in detail in order to decide on next steps.

The commission expressed its satisfaction with the decision. ”The European Commission welcomes today’s EU Court of Justice ruling confirming that individual Member States have discretion under EU law to decide which sporting events are of major importance for their public and so should be available on free-to-view television,” it said in a statement.