UEFA has taken the bold step of taking control of broadcast rights to all qualifying matches for national teams, beginning in 2014 with the the qualification round for Euro 2016 in France.
The move should equalize payments for television rights to European federations and eliminate the management agencies who served as middlemen and bought up rights on speculation. It will boostthe television incomes of federations from smaller nations at the expense of larger ones.
“The knock-on effect will be guaranteed revenue for each association,” UEFA PresidentMichel Platini told delegates in Paris at the UEFA Congress. “You will therefore all be able to concentrate on the football, without having to worry whatthe draws might throw up and whether their outcome will be favorable, or not, in terms of TV rights.”
All 53 of UEFA’s members signed up to the new program. The English FA(which made $942 million over the last four-year cycle from TV rights) was supposedly the last hold-out.