Daily Mail: BBC yet to secure rights to show next week's European Athletics champs

Story from Daily Mail:

The BBC are yet to secure the rights to broadcast the European Athletics Championships with less than a week to go until the event gets underway in Rome.

The biennial continental meeting has traditionally been shown on the Beeb, which is also the home of the Olympics, World Championships, UK Championships and Diamond League.

However, Mail Sport understands the BBC are still locked in negotiations with European Championships rights holders, the European Broadcasting Union, ahead of the start of the action on Friday June 7.

Sources remain hopeful an 11th-hour deal can be struck to avoid a TV blackout of one of athletics’ flagship events.

But if the BBC cannot come to an agreement with the EBU, it would be a major blow to the sport in this country with just two months to go until the Paris Olympics.

Great Britain have selected a strong squad of 72 athletes for the European Championships and have high hopes of securing multiple medals.

Current world medallists Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Keely Hodgkinson, Zharnel Hughes and Matthew Hudson-Smith will all be in action.

Dina Asher-Smith and Eilish McColgan are among the other household names competing in Italy.

The BBC have a packed summer schedule of sport, with Euro 2024, Wimbledon and the Olympics all on their channels. But the European Championships finish two days before the first match of the Euros.

Even if the Beeb manages secure a late deal to show the athletics, it now seems likely they would have to host the event from a studio in Salford rather than the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

It is a worrying development at a time when cash-strapped UK Athletics have been desperately trying to raise the profile of the sport and its stars.

They have commissioned a new documentary following Britain’s best Olympic and Paralympic athletes, which will air on Channel 4 ahead of Paris 2024 after the BBC turned it down.

When approached by Mail Sport, the BBC said they do not comment on sports rights negotiations.