Dimayor, the organisation which operates Colombian club football, is set to discuss two proposals to reform the means by which broadcast and sponsorship rights revenues are divided between its teams.
A meeting will be held on Friday to discuss the proposals, one of which has been put forward by the nation’s leading ‘oficialista’ clubs and the other from the Leones and Fortaleza teams, reports Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
Broadcast rights revenue is currently split equally between ‘Class A’ teams, some of which currently play in the second-tier Categoría Primera B such as Unión Magdalena, Quindío, Huila, Cortuluá and Real Cartagena, and those in ‘Class B’. The former group divides 90 per cent of the revenue, while the latter only splits 10 per cent.
The first proposal, which is backed by teams such as Nacional, América, Millonarios, Medellín and Cali, is said to take into account factors such as sporting performance, stadium attendance and television ratings.
This model would involve 30 per cent of revenue split according to the sporting performance of each club over the past four years. A further 30 per cent would be divided according to television ratings per club. This would then leave 30 per cent of the revenue to be split equally amongst Class A clubs, and 10 per cent equally among the Class B outfits.
The proposal from Fortaleza and Leones is more complex. Citing a document presented to the clubs, El Tiempo said that it would include domestic broadcast and sponsorship rights revenue, but not income gained from overseas television deals.
Thirty per cent of revenue would be split equally between the 36 Categoría Primera A and Categoría Primera B clubs. A further 15 per cent would be split equally between Class A teams, five per cent amongst those who have completed the licensing process in the past year, and three per cent amongst those that played in the second tier in the previous season.
Another 20 per cent would be distributed according to sporting performance in the past year, with five per cent distributed according to performances over the past five years.
Finally, a further 20 per cent would be distributed according to a combination of ratings and attendances at home games. The remaining two per cent would be split between the four clubs that are promoted and relegated between the leagues.
Pay-television broadcaster Win Sports currently holds domestic rights to the leagues.
Colombian clubs have been pushing for the resignation of Dimayor president Jorge Enrique Vélez in recent weeks over the failure to deliver revenues from an international broadcast rights deal.
A 10-year deal was announced with US investment fund Prudent Corporate Finance a year ago. However, the clubs claim not to have received the rights revenues promised.