Serie A TV rights sold for €181.5 m

November 7, 2009

Serie A’s worldwide broadcasting rights for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons have been sold to the MP & Silva international sports media company for €181.5 m, the Italian Football League said on Friday.

Acceptance of the bid is pending approval by Italy’s competition watchdog, the league said in a statement on its website (www.lega-calcio.it).

Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis said the decision was taken despite opposition from his club and Turin giants Juventus.

“Only we and Juventus voted against. Our (TV) rights are worth much more,” de Laurentiis was quoted as saying on La Gazzetta dello Sport’s website (www.gazzetta.it)

“Unfortunately, a little egg today was preferred to a goose with a golden egg, which could have been today too, not tomorrow.”

The Serie A highlights package and radio rights in Italy have been sold to state broadcaster Rai for €28.5m for the 2010-11 season and €30m for 2011-12.

The league said it would contest a Milan court decision to stop it assigning the live satellite broadcasting rights for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons to Sky, while an appeal against this move by a small network is considered.

Abhimanyu Rajput

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Dull Israeli season dawdles to a close, improvement in doubt

June 4, 2009

One of the dullest Israeli soccer seasons for many years dawdled to a quiet close this week with newly-crowned champions Maccabi Haifa and cup winners Beitar Jerusalem sharing the honours in a 1-1 draw that changed nothing.

It was a microcosm of an entire season almost bereft of “champagne moments” and prospects for improvement next season look doubtful.

The Israeli FA hopes next season will herald a change for the better as the top two professional divisions increase in size from 12 to 16 clubs.

There are many critics who think the opposite and say that more thinly spread TV rights money and club funding from the football pools will actually wreak disaster.

“The league expansion is complete lunacy,” said Haifa owner Yaakov Shahar.

Other critics pronounced that it will make no difference as the same clubs — such as Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv — will vie for honours with the only difference visible in a larger contingent of mid-table also-rans who will pretty soon have little to play for.

Certainly, there do not appear to be enough talented players to maintain an expanded league at a satisfactory level but other pundits have suggested that it might inspire clubs to increase investment in growing talent at home through their youth programmes rather than fritter away scarce funds on second-string foreigners who rarely bequeath a legacy of improvement.

The number of adequate stadiums to host big matches is also a problem, as at least half the additional clubs in the top flight do not have appropriate facilities and will have to share with other clubs at more distant locations.

In the campaign just concluded, Haifa did the bare minimum to wrest the championship from Beitar, the title-holders in the past two seasons, and all that can be said to their credit is that they were the most consistent team.

The current Haifa outfit was a fairly ordinary group compared to those of previous championship years when the likes of Eyal Berkovic, Yossi Benayoun and Croatian international Giovanni Rosso blazed a trail to glory and every match began with a buzz and anticipation of great performances that materialised regularly. Such excitement was clearly lacking just lately.

Beitar, who over the past four seasons were supported by Russian-born billionaire Arkady Gaydamak, fielded the most talented side in the league but severe doubts over their future funding in the wake of Gaydamak’s decision to stop bankrolling them from next season has already taken its toll.

The enigmatic Gaydamak made his intentions clear after being trounced in the Jerusalem mayoral elections last November and it immediately led to inconsistent results which clearly indicated that a hat-trick of titles would not materialise for Beitar. If they don’t find a “white knight” in the next few weeks, Beitar’s future looks bleak.

Haifa will play in the later qualifying stages of the Champions League next season and hope to re-enact their famous run in 2002 when they became the first Israeli club to participate in the group stages, during which they registered a memorable 3-0 win over Manchester United.

But Shahar is a hard man to please and as the most experienced of Israeli club chairmen he has realised that soccer in the Jewish state is a far from profitable business.

In outlining Haifa’s slightly reduced budget for next season, Shahar said the club “will spend 35 million shekels (about $9million) and not one penny more”.

PHOTO: Beitar Jerusalem players react after scoring against Wisla Krakow during their Champions League second qualifying round, first leg match in Jerusalem July 30, 2008. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

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Bayern set for cash windfall despite Euro failure

April 16, 2009

BERLIN (AFP) – Despite being handed a “football lesson” by Barcelona, Bayern Munich still stand to pocket at least 45 million euros (59m US dollars) from reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, it was revealed on Wednesday.

“We must use the money to make a point of improving our squad for next season if we want to go further than the Champions League quarter-finals,” said Bayern boss Jurgen Klinsmann after his side’s exit.

Bayern were hammered 4-0 in their first-leg defeat at Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium before midfielder Franck Ribery restored some pride as the Germans drew 1-1 with the Spaniards in Tuesday’s second leg in Munich.

Munich fans carried banners demanding “Klinsmann Out!” before the second-leg game and the Bayern boss was booed by his own fans before kick-off.

After the Barcelona debacle, Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer described his side’s first-half display as the worst in the club’s history, while club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admitted they had been taught a “football lesson”.

But despite their humiliation, Bayern are laughing all the way to the bank and will receive 12m euros (16M US dollars) alone from UEFA for reaching the last eight of the Champions League.

On top of that they will get 20m euros (26m US dollars) from the sale of TV rights here in Germany and a further 13m (17m US dollars) from television revenue, which does not include ticket sales for their home Champions League matches.

Klinsmann is keen to sign a fourth forward to complement current first-choice pair Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose as well as Croatia striker Ivan Olic, who will leave Hamburg for Bayern at the end of the season.

“We need three quality forwards and maybe a fourth,” he said.