China has FIFA in its grip: 80 million is the maximum

The World Football Federation (FIFA) asked China for an unreal 300 million dollars for TV rights during the World Cup. However, the Chinese did not even think of giving that amount, and since only the national CCTV has the right to negotiate, the government’s offer is ‘only’ 80 million dollars.

FIFA frantically tried to find a way out of this situation. When they realized that the Chinese had no intention of giving the requested amount, they decided to drastically reduce the price. The rights were offered to them for a figure ranging between 120 and 150 million dollars.

However, the answer seems to be ‘no’ again. The Chinese do not want to pay a single cent more than 80 million dollars regardless of the fact that football is extremely popular in this country.

The reasons are clear. Although soccer has a huge fan base in China, it doesn’t mean a lot of advertising revenue for state television, so that’s the main reason why the Chinese authorities aren’t crazy about buying the rights.

There are several other reasons. Most games will be played in the middle of the night, China is not participating in the World Cup, and TV commentators and journalists may not be able to report live due to problems entering the United States.

The people at FIFA are so worried that China will not broadcast the World Cup that they decided to go to this country in person to try to persuade them to buy the TV rights.

“FIFA officials are reportedly flying to China in an attempt to persuade the country’s state broadcaster to buy the television rights for this year’s World Cup. They are reportedly offering to cut the asking price by more than 50 percent,” said analyst David Lee.

We will see if the leaders of FIFA succeed in their mission. There are no jokes with the Chinese and this country does not agree to pay exorbitant figures for the World Cup.

Such a deadlock in the negotiations further emphasizes how much the World Cup has become, above all, a big business project. FIFA has been counting on the Chinese market as one of its key markets for years, and it is no wonder that there is great panic among them.

The absence of an agreement with the world’s largest spectator market would be a serious blow to the financial projections of the umbrella house of world football. At the same time, in China, the question of the profitability of investing in content that is broadcast in times when most viewers are asleep and the national team is not participating at all is being raised more and more loudly.

Local media remind that the state has already invested billions in the development of the domestic league and infrastructure, while the World Cup, at least this time, is not expected to have a direct benefit in terms of promoting Chinese football.

This is why the political will to pay more than the offered 80 million dollars is rather weak. If an agreement is not reached, the World Cup could go without a live TV broadcast on Chinese state television, a scenario that seemed unthinkable until recently.

FIFA would then be under pressure to review its own pricing policy for key markets in the future, while Chinese fans would be left to alternative channels to watch the World Cup or illegal streams, which could cause them serious legal problems.

(Vijesti.ba)