Uefa, European football’s governing body, said that its long-awaited tender for the centralised media rights for European qualifying matches for the Uefa Euro 2016 and Fifa 2018 World Cup tournaments would be launched in the second quarter of 2012.
A report on the centralised rights project was presented at this week’s Uefa Executive Committee meeting in Nyon, Switzerland.
The ‘European Qualifier’ package will cover the 2014-15 to 2017-18 period.
Uefa president Michel Platini pledged to centralise the rights following his election to a second term in office in March 2011. Nearly all European football federations currently sell their rights through in individual deals with agencies.