Friday Review: Kick off

Everybody's talking balls in Europe at the moment. The summer soap opera that precedes the start of the football season across the continent is in full swing, with transfer talk and multi-million-pound price tags for players filling the back pages of the press. In the U.K. a certain player's potential £80-million-plus move to Spain was all anyone could talk about this week…until BT's new sports channels hit the airwaves, that is. The U.K. telecoms incumbent kicked off its bid to take on satellite provider BBkyB in its own backyard with a launch show on Thursday evening at which it paraded the new line-up of presenters and pundits it has signed up to front BT Sport. While Sky is pinning all its hopes on the charms of David Beckham, who has fronted endless advertising campaigns for the satellite firm this summer…