Mediapro taking UEFA to Court
December 2, 2019
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spanish TV group Mediapro will take European football governing body UEFA to Court for altering the submission bids for the Champions League for the seasons 2021-2014 in favour of Canal Plus and beIN Sports.
“We are going to sue UEFA, in Switzerland, to request access to the tender documentation, the first and second rounds. We want the bids submitted by each to be made public. We are convinced to have won the tender,” confirmed Jaume Roures, president of Mediapro, in a French daily newspaper.
Mediapro claims that its offer has been better than those from the other bidders and argues that UEFA is putting pressure on beIN and Canal Plus to improve their offers to the detriment of the Spanish group.
“We proposed a little less than €375 million. But our competitors too, otherwise there would have been no second round. Auctions have been organised. There have been discussions for Canal + and beIN Sports to agree while our offer was better. But no one has called us to raise our price … It’s not normal”, he is quoted as saying.
On November 29th it was announced that the allocation of the TV rights to Canal Plus and beIN Sports cost €375 million.
“There was a scam. Our offers were better,” Roures concluded.