Broadcasters sued over football deal

The Football League took the television companies Carlton and Granada to court over the ITV Digital debacle yesterday in an attempt to recover the stations' £178m debt for match rights.

ITV Digital went into administration in April, causing a financial crisis for Football League clubs that had been banking on multimillion pay-outs from TV rights to their games. Yesterday, Charles Flint, QC, for the League, said the claim by Carlton and Granada that they gave no guarantee to cover the debts for the remaining two years of the £315m deal was "completely implausible".

The management of ITV Digital and its two shareholder parent companies had been "desperate" to secure broadcasting rights to league matches and were "prepared to make any offer to achieve that end", he contended.

"This company was completely dependent throughout on its shareholders' support," he told Mr Justice Langley in the High Court in London.

"Now that the business of ITV Digital has proved to be such a disaster, it suits the directors of Carlton and Granada to distance themselves from its management."

The League claims Carlton Communications and Granada Media are liable for money owed to Nationwide League clubs under a broadcasting contract signed in June 2000. Carlton and Granada want a court declaration that they are not liable under the contract.

The lawsuits are being pursued despite a new £95m deal signed earlier this month between the league and BSkyB.

Lord Grabiner QC, for Carlton and Granada, said the League's case was "nonsense" and bound to fail.

He said all negotiations were clearly subject to contract. Nothing in the initial short-form contract was intended to be binding. Preparation of the main contract went to eight drafts over 18 months "during which the subject of a guarantee was never raised". ITV Digital was a "standalone" independent company, Lord Grabiner said.

The case continues.