On one side the sporting superstars, who can cream millions of pounds from the firms whose clothes or equipment they carry on to the - televised - field of play. On the other side the television companies and sports organisations, who are desperately worried that unofficial advertising will drive sport off our screens and eventually out of business.

Judith Hann follows Derby County Football Club, whose chase for sponsorship has already put them in conflict with the television authorities, and Michael Rodd examines the divided interests which threaten to drive sport, as we know it, off our television screens. It's a game in which the rules are changed from year to year, but in which they are broken with remorseless regularity. The television companies are now facing up to the biggest challenge of all - flagrant advertising at the very heart of the sporting action.

The battle will be fierce, and this programme sets the scene.