In a bid to revive the passion for football, the All India Football Federation and Zee signed a 10-year deal for exclusive telecast for domestic and international matches
NEW DELHI: In a bid to revive the passion for football, the All India Football Federation and sports channel Zee Sports on Monday signed a 10-year deal for exclusive telecast for domestic and international matches.
The channel will telecast a minimum 70 live matches in a year beginning with the first tie on October 19 in Goa.
While AIFF's rights to Doordarshan expires on September 30, AIFF President Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said the ruling to share the telecast rights with DD was not in favour of Indian sports.
"DD should not have monopolistic rights to telecast sports events as that would be detrimental to Indian sports," he told a press conference.
Dasmunshi said it was one of the biggest deals but he refused to reveal the exact amount.
"We are the first football federation in Asia. We began with a dream but failed due to lack of motivation and support in marketing and television rights. With Zee, we should make an endeavour for maximum exposure to the game," Dasmunshi said.
He, however, said it was more than double of the previous amount. "We are comfortable and our main headache of arranging training programmes has gone now," he said.
Zee Telefilms Limited chief Subhash Chandra also refused to disclose the financial part of the deal saying "it was an open bidding process and we were the highest bidders so they chose us.
"It is a substantial amount and the money will be put back into the sports," Chandra added.
Chandra said his channel would do its best to make soccer a nationwide game bringing it out of the confines of West Bengal and Goa.
"It's a partnership rather than buying the telecast rights," he said.
Under the terms of the contract, the channel will not only broadcast the matches but also market all the domestic tournaments of AIFF including Federation Cup, Santosh Trophy, National Football League and Super Cup.
The deal includes some international matches played by the Indian team in India under the aegis of AIFF.
Dasmunshi agreed as cricket was in a bad shape in the country, it was a right time for all non-cricketing sports to take the opportunity to market themselves.
"AIFF should use all possible opportunities to market and take the game ahead," he said.
"The deal would be helpful for the players as well in terms of increased prize money, endorsements for the better performers and bigger shares to clubs," he added.
No cricket, please
The stand-off between captain and coach and the chaos at the cricket board's annual general meeting has upset Zee Telefilms chief Subhash Chandra to such an extent that he is no longer keen to acquire exclusive rights for cricket.
"I hope I don't get it now," Chandra said when asked if he was optimistic about cricket rights as well after Zee Sports signed the deal of exclusive telecast rights for football.
"People are disappointed with cricket. Its TRP ratings fell to 300-odd during the Sri Lanka series and further to 60 during the recently concluded Zimbabwe series," he said.
"I don't have to tell you what is happening in the cricket board," he said.
Chandra said he wanted to make India a sporting nation rather than a cricketing nation only.
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