MUMBAI: One of the biggest sporting spectacles of this year the 2006 football World Cup takes place in Germany later this year.
Discovery India, which airs specials related to current events has signed a deal with BBC Worldwide for a series that offers a historical perspective on how the tournament evolved.
More Than a Game: The Story of the World Cup is a six part 50 minute series. It is a collaboration between BBC Worldwide and football's governing body Fifa.
It features a combination of Official World Cup Fifa film archive, new interviews with great players and previously unknown ‘behind the scenes’ moments in World Cup history. These were filmed exclusively for the series.
The special series will trace the World Cup story from 1930 to 2002. It will feature the stories of countries and teams including defending champions Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Germany, France, Holland and England.
Deals for the show have also been sewn up in Europe with TV2 Denmark, TV2 Norway and HRT Croatia. In the Middle-East Art has picked up the show. BBC Worldwide says that it has found that the series is attracting the interest of sports departments and documentary units alike. This it says has been fundamental as one of its key strengths is its network of contacts both in the documentary market and the sports TV market.