English football's Premier League is coming under growing pressure from the top EU antitrust regulator to limit the number of games shown by satellite group British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) or face formal charges for breaking competition law.

The dispute between Brussels and the league over the sale of football media rights has been brewing since 2001, when the European Commission launched an investigation against the group. The regulator says the exclusive sale to BSkyB of live TV rights for premiership matches undermines competition between media operators, and could violate antitrust rules.

Though the league agreed in principle to stop selling live rights to all games to a single broadcaster from 2007, the two sides have been locked in talks for several months over the number of games to be shown by BSkyB's rivals.

Underlining growing frustration in Brussels at the lack of progress, a spokeswoman for the regulator said yesterday that Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, had now written to the league dismissing its latest offer.

The Premier League insisted it had agreed to end its exclusive deal with BSkyB.

"We stand by that and any suggestion that we're not is wrong," said a person close to the organisation.

Failure to resolve the stand-off would probably see the Commission issuing formal charges against the league for breaking EU competition law. Such a charge sheet, known as a statement of objections, can pave the way to financial penalties worth up to 10 per cent of a company's global annual turnover.