Fifa

Chinese internet company LeTV, which operates the Le Sports service, has acquired exclusive rights in Hong Kong for football’s 2018 Fifa World Cup, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper.

Fifa, football’s global governing body, has said that the 2015 edition of its Women’s World Cup attracted an all-time record television audience for the national team tournament.

The rights in Italy to the Fifa World Cups in 2018 and 2022 have reverted to world football’s governing body after MP & Silva withdrew from its agreement to sell them, TV Sports Markets understands.

Flow TV, the Caribbean pay-television broadcaster owned by telco Cable & Wireless, has acquired exclusive live rights for football’s Fifa World Cup qualifiers in the region.

Football’s world governing body Fifa has launched the rights sales process in France for the 2018 and 2022 editions of the World Cup national team tournament.

Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter has maintained that world football’s governing body is not a corrupt “institution,” adding that he is “clean” amid ongoing criminal investigations into the governance of the sport.

Lukas Zajancauskas, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines television audiences for this year's Fifa Women's World Cup.

StarTimes secured exclusive rights in sub-Saharan Africa to four Fifa tournaments late last month in an attempt to build new relationships and expand its football coverage.

The bribery crisis engulfing world football looks likely to have a more profound impact on the sports marketing industry than the combined failures of the ISL agency in August 2001 and Germany’s KirchMedia in April 2002.

DirecTV is monitoring the US Department of Justice’s investigation into allegations of corruption involving Fifa, football’s global governing body, and the Torneos y Competencias agency, in which the pay-television operator has a minority stake.

Executives from the Full Play, Torneos y Competencias and Traffic Sports agencies were accused today (Wednesday) of corruption in relation to the sale of media and marketing rights surrounding certain football matches and tournaments in the Americas.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Sport has sealed a rights deal in New Zealand for events operated by Fifa, football’s global governing body.

World football’s governing body Fifa has agreed a deal with pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand for the broadcast rights to its 2015 Under-20 World Cup, which is being hosted in the country.

Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke has maintained world football’s governing body did “nothing wrong” in negotiating its new US rights deal for the World Cup, adding the agreement was needed to protect date changes for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

World football’s governing body Fifa has said the 2015 Women’s World Cup will receive the biggest and most advanced broadcast production for a women’s football tournament when it takes place in Canada later this year.

Fifa’s 2014 accounts, published last week, confirmed that the governing body’s deal with the Infront Sports & Media agency and advertising agency Dentsu for the World Cup rights in Asia was an exceptionally profitable one for the two agencies.