Al Jazeera-owned pay-television broadcaster beIN Sport, recently launched in the US, has acquired rights to the US national men’s football team away qualifiers for the 2014 Fifa World Cup.
The US have two remaining away matches in the current phase of qualifying in the North and Central America and the Caribbean, organised by governing body Concacaf, which will be shown exclusively live on beIN Sport.
Games against Jamaica in Kingston on September 7 and Antigua and Barbuda on the isle of Antigua on October 12, will determine if the US progresses to the next stage of qualifying. Should the US be successful, beIN Sport will continue to broadcast the team’s away matches.
The next phase of qualifying – a six-team, home and away round-robin format – begins in February 2013 and is followed by a final intercontinental play-off against a team from the Oceania region.
In addition to covering the away matches of the US, beIN Sport has also acquired rights to the home and away matches of all other nations competing in the Concacaf qualifying competition, except Mexico.
The pay-television broadcaster launched in the US on August 15, having secured carriage deals with satellite pay-television platforms DirecTV and the Dish network.