The Real Football Thread

[Rob5091]

Sport is not going global ...
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...g-rights-sale-lesson-global-streaming-company

Champagne corks were flying last Thursday after Uefa secured average annual increases of more than 20% in the value of its Champions League rights across its five biggest European markets, largely by luring the American entertainment company Paramount into the auction for the first time.

Paramount secured the UK rights by outbidding Uefa’s incumbent partner, TNT Sports, triumphed in Germany and forced Sky Italia to up its offer in Italy.
Rising revenue for the 2027-31 seasons and a major new entrant to an otherwise stagnant rights market provide cause for Uefa celebration but of equal significance in the longer term is the product that failed to sell. Uefa had hoped to sell one package of first-pick games to a global streaming company, yet that did not materialise.

Instead, Amazon Prime retained its first-pick packages in the UK, Germany and Italy – via separate auctions – and Canal+ and Movistar got all the matches in France and Spain respectively. “The global deal is the dog that didn’t bark,” François Godard, a senior media analyst for Enders Analysis, says. “The big tech firms clearly weren’t that interested. Sport is not going global.”

 

[Rob5091]

Make a note in your diary for next Friday (december 5) for the best ever World Cup draw that's ever been. It'll be fantastic and fabulous and .... blah blah blah. Will the former players seem like they're in a hostage video and will a certain American win the FIFA Peace Prize ?
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-offer-us-glimpses-of-glory-not-the-grotesque

It will be staged at... the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, which is itself of political significance given how Donald Trump has taken it over. It will go on for ever, and be conducted by an array of celebrities aligned with the president’s Make America Great Again movement and the usual Fifa cast of assimilated and unthreatening former players. It will feature 16 more teams than ever before, with a greater degree of interference to keep the top-ranked sides apart.