Middle East

Saudi telco STC has acquired exclusive rights for the country’s professional football competitions and the national football team.

The International Bank of Qatar has denied reports linking it to the ongoing domestic rights-sales process in Italy for Serie A, the top division of football in the country.

Clubs from Serie A, the top division of Italian football, have reportedly rejected a lucrative proposal from the International Bank of Qatar related to the league’s broadcast rights.

International media and entertainment company Discovery Communications has transformed the structure of its regional businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and promoted Kasia Kieli to lead operations.

Full Play, which has been accused of bribing football executives, held talks with an entity associated with Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi over a possible sale of the sports marketing agency, according to testimony in the trial of three ex-football officials from Latin America by Santiago Pena, a former financial executive at the Argentinian business.

Racecourse Media Group, the holding company responsible for a range of media and data rights involving a host of horse-racing destinations, has signed a two-year extension to its partnership with Dubai’s Meydan Group.

Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chief executive of Qatar-owned beIN Media Group, has said he will travel to Switzerland on October 25 to answer questions from Swiss prosecutors amid ongoing investigations into the sale of Fifa World Cup rights, while it has emerged that beIN will be quizzed over alleged monopolistic practices in the Egyptian market.

Fifa secretary general Fatma Samoura has said she hopes the criminal investigations into the sale of World Cup rights to Qatari-owned beIN Media Group will not “disrupt” Qatar’s preparations for the staging of the 2022 edition of the national team football tournament.

BeIN Media Group and former Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke have denied any wrongdoing after the office of the Swiss Attorney General (OAG) confirmed that it has opened a criminal proceeding against the Frenchman and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chief executive of the broadcaster.

BeIN Media Group has been joined by a further eight sports organisations in its bid to shut down a pirate channel called beoutQ, which is operating in Saudi Arabia.

BeIN Media Group has teamed up with an alliance of sporting organisations and broadcasters to call on Saudi Arabia to shut down a pirate channel called beoutQ in the country.

OTT sports subscription service DAZN, Middle Eastern pay-television operator OSN and pay-television operator Fox Networks Group Latin America have acquired rights to the heavily-hyped crossover fight between undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and mixed martial arts superstar Conor McGregor.

The Asian Football Confederation has said it will continue to work with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and the United Arab Emirates Football Association to ensure the uninterrupted broadcast of AFC Champions League and Fifa World Cup qualifying matches in a bid to protect its commercial rights amid the ongoing situation concerning rights-holder, Qatar-based pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports.

Qatar-based pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has returned to the screens of Etisalat and Du customers in the UAE.

Goal, the football news website operated by digital sports media company Perform, has agreed a deal to show video coverage of this year’s Arab Championship club football tournament.

Uefa has earned an increase of about 40 per cent in the value of its Europa League rights in Israel following a renewal with Charlton.