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Channel 7 back in football race

The Herald Sun reports a recent meeting between Channel 7 and AFL powerbrokers has begun what will soon become one of football's greatest battles -- the rights to broadcast the game beyond 2006.

Seven's national and Melbourne bosses, David Leckie and Ian Johnson respectively, met AFL heavies Andrew Demetriou and Ben Buckley last week.

Officially the gathering was routine, Johnson said.

"It was just a `g'day' and a `how are you'," he said during the week. "It was my first official `hello' as a Channel Seven man."

Unofficially, it was much more and could have been interpreted as the signal that Seven would definitely take on channels Nine and Ten in the free-to-air bid to televise football after the current five-year deal expires at the end of 2006.

"We are not into it (the negotiation process) at all, with the exception of talking amongst ourselves in the belief that when the time comes we will be putting our heads together and working out a strategy," Johnson said.

"We are not silly enough to say we are not going to be involved.

"We are going to be involved. The agenda will be set by the AFL itself."