International subscription sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has acquired the exclusive Portuguese rights to the Spanish Supercopa.
The Supercopa rights acquisition dovetails with Eleven Sports having already bought the Portuguese rights to LaLiga.
The next installments of the Supercopa will take place in Saudi Arabia after the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) agreed a hosting deal with the Middle Eastern state. The deal has attracted controversy from some broadcasters in Spain, along with beIN Sports.
Tender documents for the international rights were issued on November 12, with bidders set a November 28 deadline for first-round bids. The RFEF invited broadcasters to bid for the rights to three editions of the tournament, until 2022.
Eleven Sports has also announced the acquisition of the Supercopa rights in Poland. The deal for the rights to the next three editions was made public during Eleven’s coverage of the Barcelona-Real Madrid clash on Wednesday evening.
Spain’s Supercopa has traditionally pitted the winners of LaLiga against the Copa del Rey victors in a two-legged final but the competition is this season expanding to a ‘Final Four’ format that comprises two semi-finals and a final. LaLiga champions Barcelona and cup winners Valencia will both take part, along with Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid as the competition moves from its August slot to January.
The first semi-final will take place on Wednesday, January 8 at 8pm (CET), followed by the second semi-final 24 hours later. The final will be staged on Sunday, January 12 at 7pm.