Sky put their faith in Chelsea

All Chelsea's home UEFA Cup games are to be shown live on television - but only on Sky's digital service.

Sky Sports announced this morning that they have signed a deal to show UEFA Cup matches from Stamford Bridge exclusively live on Sky Sports Extra.

Chelsea - who qualified for the UEFA Cup as the sixth placed club - will learn their first-round opponents when the draw is made on 20 August. The opening ties will be staged on 13 and 27 September.

All the games are on Thursday nights and if a Chelsea game clashes with another UEFA Cup match on Sky Sports, both matches will be shown simultaneously on Sky Sports Extra.

Vic Wakeling, managing director of Sky Sports, said; "We are going to be seeing a lot of Chelsea this season on Sky Sports. I don't think they'll disappoint us and, now that the stadium is completed, we are hoping for some good draws and some big nights at Stamford Bridge."

Sky will hope for an improvement on Chelsea's performance in last season's UEFA Cup, when they were knocked out by Swiss parttimers St Gallen in the first round. In the previous two years they won the Cup Winners-Cup and reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The deal shows Sky's policy of aggressively buying up broadcasting rights to sporting events in order to attract customers to their digital service and prevent them opting for rival digital packages.

This season Sky Sports will show live matches from the Premiership, Scottish Premier League, FA Cup, Scottish Cup, Spain's La Liga, the German Bundesliga and the Nationwide Conference, plus live international football - including World Cup qualifiers - for England, Scotland, and the Republic of Ireland.

With Sky Digital, viewers can follow more than 250 live matches, although a number of them will be pay-per-view.

Chelsea's Premiership game against Newcastle on Sunday 19 August will kick-off Sky's pay-per-view season, though a number of other Chelsea Premiership games are scheduled for free live coverage.

Also televised are their games at home to Charlton on 19 September and away at Leeds (21 October), Derby County (28 October), Manchester United (1 December) and Arsenal (26 December).