The proposals revolve around the centralisation of second and third-party television rights – the rights of federations to sell matches back into visiting teams’ home markets and worldwide rights outside the two participating team’s countries – for qualifying matches. Under such a system, local broadcasters across Europe could be offered complete packages of their national team’s away matches.
Sponsorship rights, rights for friendly matches and, most controversially, even federations’ domestic rights for their home matches – first-party rights – are also under discussion.
Centralisation of the rights for qualifying matches has been on the Uefa agenda for some time, but there is now sufficient support for the idea among Uefa’s 53 member federations to prompt a detailed investigation of the idea. The issue was discussed at the Uefa Congress in Israel last month and federations have been told that a feasibility study is under way.
The move would face a number of major hurdles, however. One agency executive said that it would “open a Pandora’s box” of commercial, regulatory and political problems, even assuming that the federations were willing to cede rights that lie at the heart of their autonomy.
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