Nasser Al-Khelaifi has achieved great business success at the expense of UEFA. The president of Paris Saint Germain, also president of the television operator BeIn Sports, obtained a substantial discount on retransmission rights of the competitions of the organization led by Aleksander Ceferin.
According to Bloomberg, the Qatari president would have renewed with UEFA to broadcast his competitions in the Middle East and North Africa in exchange for a total amount of 493 million euros for the next three seasons. This contract represents a reduction of 25% of the amount paid by UEFA compared to the period from 2018 to 2021 when BeIn Sports disbursed an amount close to 650 million.
The agreement makes it clear that Al-Khelaifi has managed to dribble a Ceferin that in 2020 it had to admit that UEFA had reduced its revenue by 21% compared to the previous year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In total, UEFA pocketed 3.038 million, with 85% of that money coming from the sale of television rights.
Ceferin, who has not hesitated to raise his salary since he acceded to the position of UEFA president like his friend Javier Tebas, has practically copied the business model of the League focusing its income on the sale of television rights. This agreement with the Paris Saint Germain boss, however, seems of little benefit to the usual clubs in the Champions League and The arguments of the Superliga promoted by Florentino Pérez load of reason.
The Superliga teams, among their reasons for leaving the Champions League, had adduced the economic shortage of the prizes awarded by UEFA with 115 million euros for the last champion of its maximum competition. The Super League, without going any further, projected a minimum income per participant of 350 million without having to be champion.
Al-Khelaifi is in great harmony with a Ceferin that has been seen forced to swallow with excuses of the president of Paris Saint Germain to pay him less. The president hid that BeIn Sports does not have coverage to broadcast matches in Saudi Arabia – something that was already happening – to ostensibly reduce its offer, despite the fact that UEFA has increased the number of matches with the creation of the Conference League, the third European competition that opens this fall.
We will now see if the reforms and revenue increases promised by Ceferin come to fruition. This agreement with Al-Khelaifi shows that the television market has contracted after the pandemic and that many organizations will have to tighten their belts to survive, including the untouchables UEFA and Liga.
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