UEFA Strike New USD164m FA Deal as Platini Retains Presidency

A new £100m (US$164m) television deal has been agreed between the Football Association (FA) and European soccer’s governing body UEFA over the England national team’s qualifying matches for the 2016 European Championships and the 2018 World Cup.

The agreement means that UEFA can go ahead with plans to centralize the rights to all qualifying matches for the major international competitions and media reports indicate that the FA was the last major nation to agree to the plans.

A guaranteed minimum income of £20-£25m ($32.8-$41m) a year has been agreed between the two parties, to compensate for the FA losing its most valuable commodity.

The last four-year package the FA owned covered international and FA Cup games – including competitive and friendly internationals – was worth around $942.5m around the world. 

UEFA’s aims behind the new rights plans are to mirror the highly successful model of the Champions League, whereby all rights are sold centrally and the income distributed among the competing clubs.

The body’s President Michel Platini will be re-elected today, March 22, as he is the only candidate to have announced his candidacy for the position and in turn will have at least four more years at the helm of UEFA.