Blame FIFA

By Essam Abdel-Moneim

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Everyone is upset that World Cup matches are available only via decoders. Many blame the government for failing to provide the nation with free coverage. But let's think again, for this is not the last championship that will be broadcast only to subscribers. Most future events will be sold to cable companies with free access a thing of the past. Egyptian television could have bought the World Cup series for LE144 million, but the government thought that the sum was excessive, as Information Minister Anas Al-Fiqi told us a few days ago. Was it really excessive? If you ask me, yes I believe so.

We mustn't blame the government for thinking that LE144 million for a championship is a price too high, for it is. Mind you, I don't blame the company that bought the television rights. It only wants to make money. So who is to blame? The only one I can think of is FIFA. The Federation Internationale de Football Association has sold live coverage rights for $2 billion. From then on, it's a retail operation. One major company buys these rights, then it sells to smaller companies around the world. From one retailer to another, from one middleman to another, the price for the public keeps going up.

Could FIFA have acted differently? I believe so. FIFA set the price at an unacceptably high level; it could have asked for a reasonable fee. FIFA was also in a position to demand that buyers of the service provide it to customers at a reasonable price, but it didn't. The problem started with FIFA, and if anything is to be done about it, FIFA must be involved. For example, national and regional federations could get together and pressure FIFA to act differently next time.

This week's Soapbox speaker is Al-Ahram deputy chief editor and former head of the Egyptian Football Association.