beIN loses Asian Champions League contract
March 13, 2019
By Chris Forrester
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has cancelled its TV contract with beIN Sports for broadcasting into Saudi Arabia. The decision immediately affected Tuesday’s Asian Champions League match between Saudi side Al-Hilal and Qatar’s Al-Duhail.
The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) announced on March 12th that it had received an official letter from the AFC revoking beIN Sports channels’ monopoly on airing Asian football matches in its territory.
However, the decision seems somewhat biased given that the AFC statement talked about beIN’s “illegal broadcasting” of its matches, when in fact it is Saudi-based beoutQ which is illegally transmitting games.
AFC-sanctioned matches in Saudi Arabia will instead be broadcast through AFC platforms, according to the SAFF statement.