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{ Hugh Robertson, the minister of sport, said he would look at the issue of reserving the so-called 'crown jewels' of sporting events for free-to-air television after digital switchover in 2012. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Fifa and Uefa have failed in a bid to force the British government to scrap legislation that reserves the whole of the World Cup and European Championship for free-to-air television.

The governing bodies had wanted the freedom to sell certain matches within the tournaments to the highest bidder and have long argued that not all games can be considered to be "events of major importance for the public". They challenged legislation in Britain and Belgium that reserves both tournaments – the rights to which are major money-spinners – for free-to-air broadcasters. In the UK, the BBC and ITV have tended to share the rights.

But the general court of the European Union ruled that both tournaments could legitimately be classified by national governments as "single events" that could be protected with free-to-air legislation.

The court said that it could not be predicted which games would be important for which country. "It cannot be specified in advance – at the time when the national lists are drawn up or broadcasting rights acquired – which matches will actually be decisive for the subsequent stages of those competitions or which ones may affect the fate of a given national team," it ruled.

The contentious issue of the so-called "crown jewels" list of events reserved for free-to-air TV was the subject of an independent review by the former FA executive director David Davies last year, but his recommendations were shelved by the incoming coalition government.

The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said he would look again at the issue after digital switchover in 2012 but was inclined towards further deregulation as long as profits were protected for grassroots sport.

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: "We welcome the decision from the EU and continue to support the principle of protecting major sports events for free-to-air coverage."

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