You wouldn’t expect Sky Sports to ignore an advertising opportunity like FIFA, would you?

Sky Sports has turned FIFA into a new channel launch, with a moderately funny commercial and a slightly clever competition.

But you know what? An called called Invent it Like Beckham deserves a few free words in the media.

Sky Sports 5, dedicated to European and International football, is going to launch in August. The ad launched in FIFA’s first ad break. You have to admit Sky did a good job with its ad timing.

The ad stars David Beckham, and someone very clever decided not to let him speak. Instead there’s a rather nice Courvoisier voice-over. The ad pretends to have been hunting for sports innovations. Beckham pretends to be adjudicating three of them: drone cameras over a cricket pitch, a suit that lets viewers experience the same physical impacts as a rugby player, and the chance to play Sofa Ref a la X Factor, voting for refereeing decisions. The fourth innovation is the new channel. Ta da.

The ‘more clever’ part of the campaign for the new channel is a social media search for the next big thing in sports coverage.

It asks sports fans to submit innovative ideas about how to make Sky Sports coverage better – from valuable to entertaining, ball cameras to players’ mums doing the commentary.

Sky has promised to make a prototype of the best idea and the fan with the winning suggestion will be given various prizes, including a free subscription to Sky Sports. The competition aims to promote Sky Sports’ new two years’ free broadband offer and Sky Sports 5 channel.