Manchester United's FA Cup clash with Chelsea next month will not be seen in Bermuda's pubs and clubs -- unless a row over an Island bar claimed to be screening games illegally is resolved.

The ultimatum came from Setanta Sport, the American company which supplies English FA Cup television coverage to Bermuda.

Setanta president Shane O'Rourke claimed The Beach was unlawfully showing his match coverage and warned the Front Street bar to pay up or switch off.

Otherwise, O'Rourke will block the broadcast of the glamorous quarter-final between two of England's best-supported clubs, scheduled for the morning of March 7.

"I'm a soccer fan and I don't want to do this, but this guy is out of line and there is no other way to stop him,'' said O'Rourke.

"Legally we could stop him, but that could take years. By the time a civil action got going, the season would be over.'' O'Rourke said his company had bought from the Fox Sports channel the TV rights to supply some Premier League and FA Cup soccer and Five Nations rugby to the Americas.

This covered the whole of the North and South American continents, as well as offshore countries such as Bermuda and the Caribbean islands, he claimed.

But Rick Olson, manager of The Beach, denied he was doing anything illegal and said the blackout could backfire on Setanta.

Responding to O'Rourke's threat, Olson said: "I don't understand his logic.

If he blacks out these matches, I could be the only one on the Island who can show them. That would be of great benefit to me, but not his customers.

"Although I don't have any legal responsibility to do it, I would like to work out a deal with him. I don't want to mess it up for everyone else.

"The charge for the rugby is about $375 for one match. That is too much for me to pay, I don't take enough.'' And he denied O'Rourke's claim that Setanta had already offered The Beach a cut-price package.

Olson said he picked up his coverage from an American TV network and that Setanta's customers had a satellite dish and decoder, for which his Front Street premises was unsuitable.

As for the United/Chelsea clash, Olson said it was a game he believed he would not be able to pick up.

Setanta supplies packages to show the soccer and rugby from Britain to the Robin Hood, Flanagan's, Young Men's Social Club, Southampton Rangers Football Club, Docksiders and The Country Squire.

O'Rourke admitted these paying customers would lose out in the case of a big-match blackout, but said he would pay a partial refund of the $3,000 FA Cup package.

And he urged sports fans on the Island to boycott The Beach to pressurise the management into backing down and thereby avert the blackout.

Gary Sheppard, proprietor of the Robin Hood, said O'Rourke had not mentioned switching off the cup tie to him and he hoped it would not happen.

"If this happened, it would mean the customers would be without one of the biggest games of the season,'' he said.

"In my eyes the people that would be hurt by this are our customers and the sports fans of Bermuda.

"But the situation with satellite broadcasts in Bermuda is unique and people are able to pick up programming in a certain fashion. You can't really blame The Beach for showing the games if they can pick them up.'' If the United/Chelsea match was lost, Sheppard made it clear it would be costly to his business.

"Manchester United are the most popular of the English teams in Bermuda and they always draw a good crowd -- especially when they are playing a top contender like Chelsea.

"Setanta's agreement with us is that we receive x number of FA Cup games for a certain price -- if he switches us off he would be in breach of that agreement. I'm hoping we can discuss the matter and avoid that scenario.'' Unrepentant: The Beach owner Rick Olson's showing of soccer games at his bar has brought threats to block coverage from Setanta.