The Premier League today warned Setanta Sports, the troubled pay-tv group, that it will auction off the rights to broadcast 46 live football matches next season if it does not meet its next payment deadline at the end of the week.

The league, in agreement with the broadcaster, has already issued an invitation to tender for the games, in case Setanta does not make a payment of about £10 million by Friday. Setanta had owed the league £30 million, a third of which was paid last week, with another tranche due this week and the remainder to be paid in July.

The loss of the rights could prove disastrous for Setanta, with the Premier League games the main draw for many of its subscribers. It would probably face huge numbers of cancellations and struggle to pick up new customers.

The warning comes as the loss-making broadcaster considers a £20 million cash injection from Len Blavatnik, a Russian-born billionaire, which could save it from collapse. Endemol, the TV group behind Big Brother, has also been mentioned as a possible investor. Setanta is understood to be confident of agreeing a deal led by Mr Blavatnik's Access Industries vehicle by Friday, which combined with a further investment by a group of existing and new investors, would raise about £40 million.

Setanta began taking subscriptions from new customers again today in an effort to raise funds to help pay its TV rights bills, which also include the FA Cup and Scottish Premier League.

The Dublin-based group had looked set to collapse for much of last week until news of Mr Blavatnik’s proposal to take control, and had suspended new subscriptions on Wednesday. Deloitte is lined-up as administrator should the group fail.

The Premier League said today: “The Premier League has been working over the past weeks, with Setanta, to ascertain whether they are in a position to continue as the broadcaster of 46 UK live matches for the 2009-10 season.

"Although the Premier League would like to provide Setanta with as much time as possible to rearrange its finances, the start of the 2009-10 season is only two months away, with the release of fixtures imminent.

“Accordingly, the Premier League has notified Setanta that if necessary the existing licence agreement between us will be terminated, coming into effect if Setanta does not meet certain contractual requirements of the Premier League on or before Friday 19 June 2009.

“In view of the shortage of time before the start of next season, the Premier League has determined, with the agreement of Setanta, that it shall today issue its Invitation to Tender (ITT) in respect of the 46 UK Live Matches for the 2009-10 season only.

“The bid deadline has been set for Monday 22 June but we will give all prospective bidders notice late on Friday 19 June if Setanta have met their conditions, thereby negating the need for bids to be submitted.”

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