The Football Association have agreed to sign up to a Uefa scheme, which will essentially help centralise the sale of the nation’s international television rights. The deal will consequently help to significantly exceed their existing income from international rights, a move that the FA general secretary, Alex Horne, is very pleased about.
“We thought it through long and hard, and we have got a good deal for ourselves out of it. It is higher than the current valuation of our rights,” Horne said.
“We have gone into this with out eyes wide open. It is a creative idea and we believe it will work.”
In recent years, the FA have opted to sell their international rights along with the FA Cup rights in collective deals to the likes of ITV and ESPN. Whilst they are satisfied with this latest decision however, it will pose a problem for the television rights of the FA Cup, which now have to be sold separately from internationals (you can buy FA Cup semifinal tickets at TixDaq). Given the massive influx of money into the system though, this shouldnít be a problem for the English FA, and will hopefully be resolved in the coming weeks. Nevertheless, they have secured minimum guarantees that will bring in approximately £25m per year, which again well and truly exceeds its current income from international rights.
In order to do this, the FA will need to consider their current contracts with ITV and ESPN, which are now out of sync. It is now understood that they will be required to sell a two-year deal to either ITV or the BBC, enabling them to market the rights to the FA Cup.
The decision was confirmed by Uefa president Michel Platini on Tuesday, after all 53 member associations agreed on terms, which will come into play for all international fixtures from 2014 onwards. Platini praised the FAís decision, and believes centralising the match rights was absolutely ìessentialî, highlighting the positive affect it will have on the smaller nations.
“It is a project aimed, above all, at protecting and developing national team football. And, what is more, the knock-on effect will be guaranteed revenues for each association,” Platini was quoted as saying.
“You will therefore all be able to concentrate on the football, without having to worry what the draws might throw up and whether their outcome will be favourable ñ or not ñ in terms of TV rights,” he concluded, in regards to those smaller nations.
So the FA and Uefa have reached a decision, which looks certain to benefit all in the future.
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