Coming to a screen near you... Fergie finally ends his BBC boycott

The surprise ending to Sir Alex Ferguson's seven-year boycott of the BBC was the result of persistence from much-criticised Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards.

While all others had long given up hope of an end to the saga over the 2004 BBC documentary about Fergie's agent son, Jason, Richards has stubbornly pursued a rapprochement for approaching a year.

The end of one of English football's great feuds was finally marked by a brief statement on the Manchester United website at 11.15am on Thursday that read: 'Sir Alex Ferguson and the BBC have decided to put behind them the difficulties which led to Sir Alex feeling unable to appear on BBC programmes.

All over: Sir Alex Ferguson will speak to the BBC again

'This follows a meeting between Sir Alex and the BBC's director-general Mark Thompson and BBC North director Peter Salmon and the issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.'

There was no top-level BBC apology, which Ferguson had previously made a prerequisite of any deal.

But there was a desire on both sides to draw a line under the stand-off, especially with the BBC now looking out at Fergie's Old Trafford empire from their new Salford headquarters.

Ferguson, who has called the BBC 'arrogant beyond belief and the kind of company that never apologised', took account of Thompson travelling to Manchester to see him.

A BBC source said: 'The documentary was not a matter of discussion. It was a case of letting bygones be bygones and moving on.'

The Premier League had brought the conflict back into the spotlight last October when their three-strong board agreed the level of fines  United would incur every time their manager continued to blank rights-holders BBC.

Subsequently, the Premier League were asked at regular intervals whether United had been informed of the penalties - and if not, why not, as it smacked of one rule for the champions and their formidable manager and another for the rest of the division.

Key talks: BBC director general Mark Thompson met Ferguson

The answer every time was that Richards was somehow intent on finding a resolution and until all avenues had been explored there would be no bill sent to Manchester - especially as the BBC had not made the official complaint needed to  trigger the disciplinary action.

Richards, who has maintained for the last 10 months that he would sort it out, managed eventually to broker the meeting between Thompson and Sir Alex in June.

But when there was no sign of any change of attitude on either side after that summit, officials at United, the BBC and the Premier League thought nothing would change until Fergie retired.

Instead, BBC sports reporter Dan Roan will be invited into a Ferguson press conference at United's training headquarters this morning ahead of Sunday's Premier League game against Arsenal, at which Guy Mowbray will conduct the first Match of the Day interview with the United manager for seven years.

Ever since the  May 2004 documentary Fergie and Son on BBC3 about Jason's football agency dealings with United, Ferguson had made it clear to corporation executives that he wanted a complete climbdown from the director-general or he would never talk to the BBC again.

The Beeb, in turn, felt they had nothing to apologise for, as the low-key programme revealed little that was not already in the public domain.