Japanese pay-television broadcaster Sky PerfecTV has acquired rights to the First Division A, the top tier of Belgian club football.
The two-season deal covers the 2018-19 and 2019-20 campaigns and is non-exclusive. The Pro League, organising body of the First Division A, said Japan is the first Asian country in which the league will be broadcast.
“The worldwide hype around the Red Devils (the Belgian national team) is causing foreign TV stations to start to become interested in our competition, (the Sky deal) is a good example of this,” Pierre François, chief executive of the Pro League, said.
“The foreign channels want to see their national heroes in our competition, but also discover the new (Thibaut) Courtois, (Kevin) De Bruyne, (Axel) Witsel, (Vincent) Kompany or (Thomas) Meunier.”
Japan international defender Naomichi Ueda (pictured) plays for First Division A club Cercle Brugge KSV.