It is understood La Liga have rejected Sky's bid of less than £18m a year

Pundits are exploring other opportunities, fearing contract will not be extended

Sky Sports' rights deal for Spanish football is in danger of breaking down

Sky Sports’ rights deal for Spanish football, which has run for more than two decades, is in danger of breaking down.

Pundits on Sky’s La Liga coverage are exploring other opportunities because they fear the contract will not be extended.

It was thought BT Sport had snatched the Spanish rights three years ago, only for Sky, who had just lost Champions League games to their big rivals, to raise their offer to £18million a year.

Sky Sports' rights deal for Spanish football's top tier is in danger of breaking down

That will not happen again because Sky — owing to soaring Premier League costs — now stick rigidly to offering what they believe a rights deal is worth to them.

It is understood La Liga have rejected Sky’s bid of less than £18m a year for what is regarded as the most important foreign football package.

Spanish TV rights negotiations tend to drag on and it could be near the start of next season before a deal is agreed.

BT, who could challenge for La Liga coverage again, are still to renew their contracts for French and Italian football for 2018-19.

Sky declined to comment.

The fall-out from Harlequins’ humiliating 35-5 home defeat by London Irish did not stop at director of rugby John Kingston being sacked.

Staff at the dysfunctional rugby club chose, in their wisdom, to go on a drinking spree after the match, ending up at Clapham nightclub Infernos, where they tried to form a human pyramid. Accountant Ellie Cross fractured her jaw falling off it.

Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston (above) will leave at the end of the current season

The FA’s choice of headhunter to fill their next big job will be closely watched after allegations that Odgers — or those they approached — were responsible for leaks that proved hugely embarrassing to the governing body.

It is claimed Odgers were commissioned by FA chairman Greg Clarke to find potential successors to CEO Martin Glenn, who isn’t expected to leave until 2020 at the earliest. Odgers found Glenn for the FA, having been chosen after under-cutting rivals by a six-figure sum.

The FA blazers, who have eating and drinking at Wembley high on their list of priorities, have won a notable victory over the management ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals.

Executives had wanted a buffet in the VIP Wembley suite for the two games, but FA councillors have voted in enough numbers to keep their traditional silver-service dining experience.

Shaun is such a yawn

The overblown EFL Awards at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Sunday gave chief executive Shaun Harvey the chance to make his keynote address of the year in front of more than 700 guests representing 51 clubs.

Yet Harvey, the most wooden of speakers as anyone who has seen his Carabao Cup draw displays will testify, wasted precious time telling his audience your Sports Agenda columnist had not been invited and the reasons why — as if anyone, including yours truly, cares a jot. Skipping another Harvey drone-fest was preferable by far.

The EFL Awards gave Shaun Harvey the chance to make his keynote address of the year

The Premier League are relaxed over threatened complaints from clubs about the dominance of agent Jorge Mendes at promoted Wolves, because none of the top flight are squeaky clean when it comes to favouring one agent over another.

The club’s Chinese owners Fosun International having a 20 per cent stake in Mendes’s GestiFute agency is worthy of investigation, though.

The hapless British Horseracing Authority have achieved the seemingly impossible by upsetting mild-mannered champion jockey Richard Johnson with an extra jumps meeting at Ayr on April 30, during the one-week break between the jumps seasons.

Johnson said on social media it was ‘very disappointing’, especially as the BHA had told him they ‘forgot’ about the riders’ brief holiday. However, Johnson’s gripe has led the BHA to move the Ayr fixture to May 7.