The World Sport Group agency has rejected claims from Iranian state broadcaster IRIB that it is overcharging for rights for the Iranian national football team’s qualifying games for the 2014 Fifa World Cup.
IRIB’s legal counsel, Gholamreza Rafiee, told Iranian news agency Kabir News that WSG, part of the Lagardère Unlimited sports marketing group, was “trying to swindle Asian countries” including Iran by increasing the cost of rights for World Cup qualifying matches.
WSG said Rafiee’s words were “incorrect and misleading”. WSG sells rights for Asian qualifiers for the World Cup under a deal with the Asian Football Confederation, the governing body of football on the continent. The deal covers marketing and media rights for a host of competitions between 2013 and 2020. The agency and the confederation have a similar deal covering 2005 to 2012.
WSG spokeswoman Shyamala Velappan told Kabir News: “The previous agreement to broadcast various AFC events for the period 2009 – 2012 was valued at $4.5 million (€3.4 million). The broadcast rights fee which we are negotiating with IRIB for the new cycle is $11 million for all AFC national team and club competitions, which consist of approximately 1,300 matches over a four-year period, not just the Fifa World Cup 2014 AFC qualifying matches.”
Velappan added: “To put this figure into context, it represents only a tiny fraction of the rights fees being paid by other countries in the Middle East for the same number of matches.”