MP & Silva acquired exclusive international media and marketing rights to a selection of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup 2011 qualifiers.
The deals reaffirm the agency’s commitment to expedite the growth of Asian football. “This latest acquisition of AFC Asian Cup 2011 underlines our long-term vision and continual commitment to work with Asian football federations to invest, develop and support Asian football, and we will do our utmost to broaden the coverage of Asian football, particularly across our Asian broadcasters,” said Andrea Radrizzani, Group Chief Executive Officer, MP & Silva.
“We think that the current economic situation will present an unexpected opportunity for Asian football to be placed in the shop window as we expect the prevailing tough economic climate to force a number of local and regional broadcasters to look beyond the ‘traditional’ international football offerings, and seek out value-for-investment replacement football programmes that will fit into their reduced acquisitions budget.”
The media rights held by the agency include 21 key Qualifying Stage qualifying matches involving Hong Kong, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Syria, and Singapore will determine which teams will join 2007 champions Iraq, Asian powerhouse nations, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, and AFC Challenge Cup winner, India in the AFC Asian Cup 2011 finals, which will be held in Doha, Qatar in January 2011. The deals will also see the agency manage and distribute the marketing rights of Hong Kong, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and Oman home matches.
The AFC Asian Cup 2011 Qualifying Stage started in January 2009 and will conclude on March 2010.
