Asian Football Confederation Pitches Broadcast Rights For The UAE

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is looking to secure a new broadcast partner in the UAE for 2021 to 2024.

The media rights on offer cover the national team and club competitions, including the AFC Asian Cup in China in 2023 and the Asian qualifying competition for the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

There are also the rights to the flagship club competitions of the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup and other major AFC tournaments such as the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 and both men’s and women’s age group and futsal events.

Rights were previously held by Bein Sports for the last ten years, although negotiations between the AFC and the broadcaster failed to reach an agreement for a renewal of the current pan-regional deal.

Bein Sports lost its exclusive rights to broadcast matches in Saudi Arabia earlier this year after Asian football's governing body cancelled its licence over what Saudi officials termed "grave violations" by the Qatari broadcaster to obtain licences to air games in the kingdom.

AFC-sanctioned matches in Saudi Arabia were instead broadcast through AFC platforms.