The Football Association is considering selling the international broadcast rights for English football’s most historic competition, the FA Cup, to the Premier League.
According to a report broken exclusively by SportsBusiness and then followed up by The Times, the FA have been approached by the Premier League with a proposal that would see the League acquire the international rights for the FA Cup and re-sell them alongside their own rights to broadcasters, a move that would drive up the value of the international rights market, currently worth more than £5bn for the current cycle, even further.
While something that could have a potentially positive financial impact on Premier League clubs, concerns have been raised by EFL clubs about handing over such power to the Premier League and how it could open the door to changes to the fixture list that could be to the detriment of smaller clubs.
One source told the Times that it was potentially the ‘worst decision’ for the FA since they bowed to pressure from the biggest clubs in 1992 to form the Premier League, the most seismic moment in English football.
At present the six-year international broadcast rights deal is held by IMG, the global sports marketing firm. That deal runs out at the end of the 2024/25 season, with the deal having been worth £100m per year, excluding western Europe, the Middle East and north Africa.
Talks had been ongoing with the Swiss firm Infront Sports and Media, but a statement was released by the company on Monday evening that it was considering its options on how to move forward.
A statement provided to SportBusiness read: “(We are) deeply troubled by the FA’s unexpected decision to abruptly pause contractual negotiations for the distribution of international media rights due to a third-party offer which the FA insisted it had to assess.
“Infront is now further dismayed at the launch of a new ITT. Over the past two decades we have engaged with many reputable European top-tier rights-holders and have never experienced such a turn of events.
“It is especially surprising for a rights-holder as established and storied as the FA to even consider such a move following the conclusion of a clear, formal and transparent tender process; a process which concluded with a confirmatory message that Infront was awarded the rights as the successful bidder of the tender in early May 2023.”
The FA have declined to comment on live negotiations.
