The Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) will today (Thursday) launch a fresh invitation to tender process for the broadcast rights to club competitions in the country.
An FBF executive committee meeting yesterday rubber-stamped what will be a second auction for the rights to the División Profesional and División Aficionados.
The Federation has set out terms for a four-year contract, spanning 2021 to 2024, with a base total amount of $45m (€39.5m) – an average of $11.25m per season – being requested.
Bidders will also have to provide financing for the implementation of video assistant referee (VAR) technology in FBF competitions. From today through to July 28, bidders can obtain the terms of reference and request any clarifications.
The FBF has set a deadline of August 10 for bids to be submitted, with the offers to be assessed on the same day. The Federation this month cancelled an initial broadcast rights tender for club competitions.
División Profesional broadcast rights are currently held by the Sport TV rights agency in a deal worth $4.1m and which expires at the end of this season.
The FBF formally ended the tender after a joint stance adopted by the Primera Divisíon’s 14 clubs during a meeting held on June 5. Four of Bolivia’s leading football clubs last month signalled their intention not to participate in the tender process planned by the FBF. Primera Divisíon teams Bolívar, Wilstermann, Blooming and Oriente Petrolero have been looking at selling their own rights instead.
The 14 clubs that make up the Primera Divisíon have also been considering a purported 10-year offer from Bolívar president Marcelo Claure worth a possible $100m, but failed to reach a consensus that would have ended the tender.
Claure’s offer would cover a 10-season period running between 2021 and 2030 which is more than double the four-year length that the FBF was advertising. Aside from the four clubs, there was said to be another group, including Guabirá and Royal Pari, who back Claure’s proposal.
It was reported in Bolivia at the start of this week that six clubs – Bolívar, Wilstermann, Blooming, Orient Petrolero, Guabirá and Royal Pari – had reached an agreement to manage their own media rights. The clubs also asked the other eight top-flight sides to join the project.
The FBF previously moved to reclaim control over the División Profesional rights from 2021 onwards. The rights reclamation stripped the league’s 14 clubs of negotiating their own broadcast rights in favour of placing the collective negotiating power with the FBF.