Interesting article regarding the TV rights for the European Championships in the UK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7438763.stm
I thought UEFA and FIFA were supposed to protect the interests of football, and one way of doing that is to make the game as accessable to as many people as possible. Silly old me, obviously UEFA are actually there to make themselves piles and piles of cash, if that means that less people have access to to watching football, why should they care?
Comments
The primary concern of UEFA (and FIFA) should be to get a fair price for the rights, after that it's own ot the broadcaster to decide how it will show the coverage. What absolutely staggering arrogance on UEFA's part. They are stepping way over the line here, they should have no say whatsoever in how the deals are structured
I'd love to see the sponsors come out and state that if UEFA are going to insist on PPV (and therefore a massive fail in viewing figures) they either won't sponsor or won't pay the sums UEFA want. Somehow I can't see it happening.
Dear Sirs,
I am puzzled with your attitude to the free to air law regarding the broadcasting of the European Championship finals in the UK.
You want to force the British government to open up the broadcasting of matches not involving British nations to tender from pay broadcasters, citing competition law etc as the reason. Obviously the real reason behind this is to make UEFA more money. I thought that your organization was there for the good of football – if that was the case you would want as many people as possible to have access to as many matches as possible, but you are looking to restrict that access for monetary reasons.
If there are financial problems at UEFA, and you desperately need the money, then someone somewhere is badly mismanaging the enormous amount of money you generate through your various competitions, and they should be accountable for their actions, as should the person or persons responsible for employing them. The British public should not be the ones paying for these errors.
If, on the other hand, as I suspect, you are actually in a healthy financial position, and the motivation for this attempt to change British law is pure greed, then you are putting money above the game as a whole, and everyone responsible should consider their motivation for being in the position they are, and if they think that they are unable to put football’s best interests before avarice, then they should resign and go and work for a bank or a similar organization.
I look forward to your comments on this matter.