Every sports fan in the UK knows that the two big dogs of sports coverage in Britain are Sky Sports and BT Sport. 

If you can bounce it, triple it, kick it, or hit them in the face with it, they will be there with their cameras rolling.

However, they seem to be in danger of losing their rights to football coverage, largely in part to Eleven Sports winning the rights to show Spanish and Italian flights earlier this year.

The Eleven Sports network, launched just last year by Leeds United owner and Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani, secured a deal in May to broadcast La Liga football matches in the UK and Ireland for the next three years, which was previously broadcast by Sky Sports.

Just a couple of weeks ago, another deal was made where Eleven secured exclusive UK three-year deals to screen Serie A matches, previously broadcast by BT Sport.

Another blow could come in the form of Facebook.

Rumour has it, according to The Times, the social media mastodon could wind up streaming both La Liga and Serie A matches free of charge in the UK.

As other countries have been known to offer free streaming of games, the company wants to screen free games for British fans, and we can only imagine how much Sky Sports and BT are cringing at the thought of it.

While Sky Sports and BT will both still be showing Premier League games this year, both networks are probably less than thrilled with their declining influence.

The news of losing La Liga and Serie A to Eleven, combined with the possibility of them using Facebook to stream games for the British audience, these are fatal blows to both networks in terms of football coverage. 

We wonder if BT Sport would have tried harder to keep their rights had they known a certain Cristiano Ronaldo was heading to Turin.