By Paul Nicholson
October 21 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has released a statement rebutting reports that it has concluded an agreement with Lagardère Sports for an eight-year extension of their broadcast and marketing contract held via their World Sport Group agency.
The AFC statement said: “The confederation has not concluded any commercial partnership agreements for a new rights package with any specialised agency. The fact is, as an AFC statement said, that there have been meetings with some of the leading specialist agencies around the world and the AFC has received presentations from them. This competitive process is by no means concluded and talks with international agencies continue.”
The current AFC contract with the World Sport Group agency was renewed in 2009, when Mohamed Bin Hammam was AFC president, and is not scheduled to run out until 2020. The length of this contract against the rise in value of premium football rights worldwide has left the AFC locked into a deal that, as time moves on, hugely undervalues their rights.
That the AFC should want to re-evaluate that deal and look for increased value going forward makes business sense. But this has unleashed a feeding frenzy amongst sports rights marketing agencies looking to get a foothold in a market traditionally dominated and locked out by the World Sport Group deal.
Marketplace rumours were that a back-door deal was being negotiated for an 8-year extension to the rights from 2020 with World Sport Group, a rumour strenuously denied by the AFC.
The figure reported for the extension with World Sport Group was $1.2 billion, with IMG saying that it had offered $2.5 million for rights it believes are currently worth $900 million.
World Sport Group’s belief they are about to sign a deal to extend their deal looks to be misplaced. The AFC’s statement said: “Once the offers have been evaluated, they will then be first presented to the AFC Executive Committee for their ratification before being announced publicly. The AFC is bound by maximum standards of transparency and will continue to do so.”
With the current deal not running out until 2020 the AFC does not need to be hurried into making a decision while it evaluates the value of its rights.
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