Luis Chiriboga, the president of the Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol, the Ecuadorian Football Federation, said that the governing body remained in control of its broadcast rights despite having a centralised sales process halted by a civil court.
Chiriboga said that the court’s decision last week to block the sales process for the rights to Serie A and Serie B, the country’s top two football divisions, was “unacceptable.” He did not reveal the federation’s next step, despite reports that it would lodge an appeal.
“We suspended the tender because we own the rights, and as we are a private institution we will see what we do,” Chiriboga told the Deportivo de Quito radio station.
The civil court hearing was convened after Ecuadorian commercial broadcaster Ecuavisa complained about the process that led to a vote in favour of introducing centralised sales at the country’s annual football congress in January. Lawyers for Ecuavisa said that the federation’s broadcast partners were not given the chance to offer their opinions before the vote.
More than half of the top-flight clubs are also opposed to the introduction of centralised selling for the start of the 2013 season.