Television coverage of every Arabian Gulf League match this season will be encrypted, it was announced this week, so if you are not willing to pay Dh19 per month, you will not see the domestic top flight on television.
Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. When the expansion of encryption was broached last month, a #Dont_Encrypt_The_Arabian_Gulf_League Twitter hashtag drew 526,000 impressions.
It was refreshing to know that fans still care about the Arabian Gulf League, which mostly caters to a niche within a niche.
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The AGL turned “professional” in the 2008/09 season, promising improved organisation, from marketing of the league to match-day experience to communication within the “football companies”.
Professional improvements were introduced and TV rights were sold for the first time in the league’s history to Abu Dhabi Sports TV after a bidding process.
Most importantly, the AGL slowly but surely changed its image as a league that splashed cash on washed-up foreign veterans for publicity purposes to one interested in competitive excellence, even if the expat players were not well-known.
Despite all the efforts over the past seven seasons, the league continues to struggle in three key areas: match-day attendance, TV viewership and tapping into the huge expatriate market.
The first two are targets known the world over, while the third is peculiar to the UAE and a few other countries where expats are the majority.
The encryption of the AGL is a carefully thought-out strategy from top officials at the Pro League Committee, the UAE Football Association and Abu Dhabi Media. They have a grander strategy up their sleeves.
Abu Dhabi Media will be taking on the mighty beIN Sports TV (which has the exclusive Middle East and North Africa region rights to essentially all the big sporting leagues and tournaments from around the world) next summer to bid for the rights of the most lucrative European football league – the English Premier League.
The encryption of the AGL games is seen as a support mechanism to the exclusive content and vice versa, which Abu Dhabi Media has already won the rights to air in the Mena region, such as the Spanish, French and Italian Super Cups and the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
Attendance has been an area the league has often focused on improving, but with minimal success since the league embraced professionalism.
During the 2010/11 season the average attendance was 3,576, a league record. Since that season attendance numbers have been stuck in a lower range: 2,520 a game in 2011/12, 2,962 in 2012/13, 2,418 in 2013/14 and 2,529 last season.
The league’s ambitions are to improve match-day attendance.
The AGL’s modest TV ratings, at present, suggest that the plan to encrypt the league is not yet an act to monetise the league. Rather, it is meant to further encourage fans to leave their majlises and cafes for the stadium.
Some fans are disappointed, but the reality is that the AGL does not owe anything to the fans. Unlike the European leagues, the AGL was not built on revenue gained from ticket sales or TV subscriptions.
The clubs here have been supported by the government and allocations to the clubs have allowed the league to become more competitive and better-known throughout global football circles.
Football fans in the UAE have become conditioned to free football – it was the status quo for decades. But we are living in a professional world and it is only fair that the AGL try everything possible to make the league as efficient, sustainable and professional as possible.
Encryption of the league’s matches is a professional step the AGL has to take now with an integrated system, to aim towards monetising the league in the near future.
The AGL and “football companies” cannot be funded by the government for life.
sports@thenational.ae
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