FA Agrees New TV Deal With Uefa

The Football Association has agreed a new £100m television deal with UEFA over the England national team’s qualifying matches for the 2016 European Championships and the 2018 World Cup – according to media reports.

The deal means UEFA can go ahead with plans to centralize the rights to all qualifying matches for the major international competitions.

Media reports indicate that the FA was the last major nation to agree to the plans, only agreeing after a compromise was negotiated.

UEFA has agreed to offer a guaranteed minimum income of £20-£25 million a year, to compensate for the FA losing its most valuable commodity.

The last four-year package the FA owned covered international and FA Cup games – including competitive and friendly internationals – was worth around £575m around the world.

Platini, the UEFA president, hopes to mirror the highly successful model of the Champions League, whereby all rights are sold centrally and the income distributed among the competing clubs.

Michel Platini will be re-elected today as UEFA president, as he is the only candidate set to stand for the position – according to media reports.??

Platini, head of the European soccer’s governing body, will have at least four more years as UEFA president following Tuesday’s elections.??

The election provides a backdrop for campaigning for the FIFA presidential election to begin, with the final election taking place in June.

??Last Friday, Mohamed Bin Hammam announced he would stand for the election as a challenger to long-reigning FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who is standing for a fourth term. ??

Bin Hammam is the Asian Football Confederation president, and was one of the key players in bringing the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. ??

The Qatari added: ‘I always respect my competitors. President Blatter is a colleague and friend. I won’t create or encourage any environment that will divide the football family’.??

The elections will take place at the two-day FIFA Congress in Zurich from 31st May.