UEFA and beIN MEDIA GROUP, the global sports and entertainment group (“beIN”), have announced a major new media rights agreement that will see beIN SPORTS, beIN’s flagship sports network, exclusively broadcast UEFA’s premium club competitions across the 24 country region of the Middle East and North Africa (“MENA”) for the period 2021/22 to 2023/24.
The 3-year major renewal includes rights to the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Europa Conference League and – importantly – new rights to UEFA’s premium women’s football competition, the UEFA Women’s Champions League. beIN will exclusively broadcast the UEFA competitions in Arabic, English and French across all 24 countries of the MENA region, from Morocco in the west to Oman in the east – and every MENA country in between.
The new deal further strengthens and extends the existing 12 year relationship in MENA between UEFA and beIN, where beIN is also the exclusive broadcaster of UEFA national team football tournaments, including UEFA EURO 2020, UEFA EURO 2024, the UEFA Nations League and all European qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2022. beIN and UEFA will also continue their close partnership and alliance on anti-piracy measures in countries and regions all around the world.
Speaking about the new agreement, Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Marketing Director, said: “This is another major rights deal for UEFA securing significant funds for the European football pyramid. We are delighted to extend our trusted partnership with beIN MEDIA GROUP, whose sports network in MENA is second-to-none in its quality of programming and broadcasting innovation. We are also delighted for the UEFA Women’s Champions League to have such an important platform of exposure. With European football continuing to be of such sporting and cultural significance in MENA, we couldn’t be happier to have beIN as our official broadcast partner across the region.”
Richard Verow, Chief Sports Officer of beIN MEDIA GROUP, said: “beIN is delighted to renew our valued relationship with UEFA as their clubs competitions broadcast partner across all 24 countries of MENA, which complements our existing rights to UEFA’s national team competitions and a huge range of other premium sports and entertainment rights. European football excites and inspires fans like no other sport across the MENA region – and there is simply no better broadcaster in the world to bring UEFA’s content to fans, families and households across the Arab world. We look forward to continuing to provide the very best of world sport to our valued subscribers across this region, starting with the incredible spectacle of UEFA EURO 2020 starting next week.”
