Football’s European governing body Uefa has confirmed that newly-created company CAA Eleven has won the contract to sell the European Qualifiers package of centralised media rights.
CAA’s deal, which was exclusively reported by TV Sports Markets last month, will run for four years, from 2014-15 to 2017-18 and will include the unsold media and marketing rights for the Euro 2016 competition, as well as media and marketing rights for European qualifying matches for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.
”Our strategic aim was to exploit the commercial rights for our national team competitions under one roof,” said UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino. “This would then allow us to offer a coherent approach in optimising overall revenue streams for our member associations going forward. A similar centralisation of commercial rights has helped to strengthen European club football over the past two decades, and we expect that the same will now happen for national team football on this continent.”
“We are honoured to have been selected by UEFA to represent the prestigious rights for Uefa’s national team competitions,” David O’Connor, Managing Partner of CAA, said. “We look forward to working closely with our partners at Uefa, one of the world’s most respected governing bodies, and its 53 member associations, to create precedent-setting opportunities around the globe for these highly-coveted media assets.”
CAA Eleven will be led by Olivier Guiguet and Stéphane Schindler, who served in executive roles at the Lagardère Unlimited sports marketing division of media conglomerate Lagardère. Guiguet will be chief executive officer, and Schindler chief operating officer of the new agency. CAA Eleven was founded by the Creative Artists Agency in June 2012 and is currently assembling a staff that will be headquartered in Nyon, Switzerland.
“I have tremendous respect for our partners at CAA, and am extremely proud that UEFA has entrusted us with the responsibility of this revolutionary opportunity in the global football rights landscape,” said Guiguet.
The award of the centralised package of rights to CAA was first reported by TV Sports Markets on September 14.
As well as selling the commercial rights for Euro 2016 and the Euro 2016 and 2018 World Cup qualifiers, CAA Eleven will sell commercial rights for the European U-21 Championship, the European U-19 Championship, the European U-17 Championship, the European Women’s Championship, the European Women’s U-19 Championship, the European Women’s U-17 Championship and the European Futsal Championship.