Now the Football Association Premier League has been given 10 weeks to guarantee open access for media coverage – or face the prospect of European Court action for breaching EU rules.

In a “Statement of Objections“, the Commission has urged the league to submit proposals for complying with fair competition requirements. A Commission spokesman said: “We will examine carefully and with an open mind any proposals the FAPL may submit.

“The sending of a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation, and respects the right of the notifying party (the FAPL) and other parties to be heard.”

The league sells packages of media rights on behalf of its clubs to British and Irish television companies on an exclusive basis. Clubs cannot sell their own rights, even those not included in the packages – with the result that only one quarter of Premier League games are broadcast live.

The Commission said the effect of such “joint selling” is that only big media groups can afford to buy the “bundle of rights” on offer, shutting out would-be competitors and forcing up prices.

Football fans also suffer, said the Commission, because they are offered less football on television – or none at all if they do not subscribe to pay-TV, because there are no live matches on free TV.

The lack of competition may also limit packages of rights available for new media and new technologies, particularly the third-generation of mobile phones, with a possible slowdown in their introduction.

“All these anti-competitive effects do not mean, however, that joint selling is to be banned outright. The Commission fully accepts that sport is not to be treated like any other sector,” said a statement in Brussels.

The Commission reached a deal last June with European football’s governing body, UEFA, over the joint selling of the Champions League, under which arrangements were allowed to carry on subject to more matches being shown live, and subject to individual clubs having some control over selling rights.

Today’s statement said: “As regards the Premier league, the Commission considers that the current joint selling arrangements are anti-competitive because they have the effect of foreclosing the market for other broadcasters and ultimately limit media coverage of soccer events to the detriment of consumers.

“The Commission believes at this stage that the selling of the media rights as practised by the FAPL is not indispensable for guaranteeing solidarity among clubs participating in the English leagues and that it is possible to achieve solidarity without incurring anti-competitive effects.”

The Commission said the league can now request a hearing at which it could submit arguments directly to representatives of the national competition authorities.