DUBAI // The new professional UAE Football League yesterday reached agreement with an international marketing company with a view to having its matches televised in foreign countries from early next year.
India, Indonesia and the Eurosport satellite channel, which serves Europe, are negotiating with the marketing company to take the fixtures in a deal which is worth Dh100 million (US$27m) to the UFL and its 12 Etisalat Pro-League Clubs over the next four years.
Romy Gai, the Italian-born chief executive of the UFL, shook hands with Andrea Radrizzani, his compatriot and chief executive of the MP and Silva media marketing organisation, which holds the rights for Serie A matches in Italy. Mr Gai is confident that the standard of football played by Emirati teams will be high enough to attract audiences in Europe and the subcontinent. And he said the league can get better with the revenue he has helped bring in since taking up his UFL position five months ago.
"This new deal means that in the short time we've been in operation we have raised more than Dh135m from our local broadcasters, our main sponsors Etisalat and this latest agreement," Mr Gai said. "That money will be redistributed to our member clubs which can only help in our overall objective of making our league stronger and more professional. The more money we raise, the more money our clubs can spend on better quality players which leads to better quality football and makes the UFL a better product. A better product means more capacity for better revenues and on it goes. It is my intention to keep that upwards spiral going as fast as we can."
Mr Gai is an acquaintance of several years of Mr Radrizzani, who said after signing the agreement: "We like a challenge. We believe, though, that there is a tremendous demand to watch Arab football around the world and we intend to satisfy that demand. I think the Friday evening fixtures in the UAE could prove to be attractive, especially to audiences in places like India where the time difference works to our advantage. In Europe there is hardly any football played on Fridays, so Eurosport may be able to find an afternoon slot for the night games here."
Pro-League matches may be shown overseas as early as January, although both parties were reluctant to specify a date.
Mr Radrizzani's company has been working with the UFL since the summer and has already struck a sponsorship deal with the Japanese electronics giant Toshiba on behalf of its Emirati clients.
Mr Gai, who formerly looked after the financial affairs of the Italian club Juventus, has made an enormous impact during his brief UFL tenure. The league is envied throughout Asia and has been used as a role model for its counterparts around the region. He said clubs would receive the first half of their financial windfall by the end of January.
"We are looking to distribute 50 per cent of the money at that midway point of the season and the rest will be distributed at the end of the season based on rankings. This is a big day for us. The main part of our selling process is now finalised after just four months and is in place for the next four years. We can now concentrate on the organisational side of our business. We need to continue to grow. We have achieved some good results so far but that is nothing compared to what we are capable of doing. The most important thing about today is that we are now becoming an international organisation."
Hamad Bin Brook, the chairman of the UFL, said: "Five months ago the management team at UFL set out with a singular goal to be one of the top two leagues in the Middle East and we are proud to say that we have done that in a very short time frame. So we are now setting our sights much higher. Our new goal is to become one of the top three football leagues in Asia and we are very confident that our expanded long-term partnership with MP and Silva will help us to achieve this vision."
wjohnson@thenational.ae
