By Paul Nicholson
January 2 – Saudi Arabia’s controversial Turki Al-Sheikh who as president of the General Sports Authority has involved himself in the international football market and its politics, has had his ministerial position re-organised with a move to chairman of the Entertainment Authority.
By Paul Nicholson
December 19 – The European Union, China and Canada all spoke out in support of Qatar’s case against Saudi Arabia at a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting today discussing the beoutQ piracy of broadcast programming. All three backed the contention that Qatar had the right to pursue protection of the intellectual copyright through the organisation.
By Paul Nicholson
December 7 – The UAE are officially putting forward a candidate for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) presidency of the regional confederation whose elections take place April 6 in Kuala Lumpur next year.As is Qatar. Both nominations came in before yesterday’s midnight deadline last night.
By Paul Nicholson
November 2 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has officially opened nominations for the positions of AFC President, five FIFA Vice Presidents and six FIFA Council members. Elections will be held at the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 6, 2019.
By Paul Nicholson
October 16 – FIFA for $21 billion or Manchester United for $4 billion? When you have $1 trillion, why not buy both? The Saudi Arabian determination to acquire their way to controlling positions in world football’s biggest brands knows no bounds – and football, like business, generally doesn’t discriminate when it comes to money.
October 8 – Saudi Arabia has aggressively been building a portfolio and presence in football, but in Egypt the kingdom’s efforts to exert influence have backfired as the meddling of Saudi sports minister Turki Al-Sheikh hasn’t been received well by local administrators and fans.
By Paul Nicholson
September 3 – Saudi Arabia’s ambition to hold the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has seen a second Saudi declare he will run in the presidential election next year.
By Paul Nicholson
October 1 – Saudi Arabia has been hit with a two-pronged billion dollar offensive from broadcaster beIN and the Qatar state over the on-going copyright theft of pirate broadcaster beoutQ. A consortium of rights holders including FIFA and the Premier League are expected to follow suit in the coming days as the Saudis rapidly turn themselves into the pariahs of the sports rights business.
By Paul Nicholson
The three biggest football presidencies in global football come up for election in 2019 with FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and UEFA all voting on new presidential terms. At present the only election of the three that will be contested will be in Asia – current president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa announced his intention to run again last week.
August 22 – Saudi Arabian pirate broadcaster beoutQ is showing no signs of easing up on its copyright theft, stealing every match of the round two of the new Premier League season for broadcast into Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
By Paul Nicholson
August 20 – The Saudi Arabian competition authority has today released a ruling that bans Qatari-based broadcaster beIN Sport from transmitting into the kingdom. The cancelling of the beIN Sport license means that the only way to view top level international football in Saudi Arabia will be illegally via the pirate channel beoutQ.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 20 – The first shots have been fired in the bid to govern Asian football next year with Saudi Football Federation chief Adel Ezzat resigning his domestic post to concentrate on taking over from Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa.
November 16 – France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) has written to the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission calling for support in investigating the piracy activities of Saudi-broadcast beoutQ and demanding the copyright theft is stopped.
By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – Pirate satellite broadcast beoutQ, which has been stealing the rights to beIN Sport broadcast content, has continued where it left at the World Cup, with every game of the first Premier League weekend stolen and broadcast via the Arabsat satellite. beoutQ also stole six of the 10 opening games of France’s Ligue 1, including PSG vs Caen.
By Paul Nicholson
July 16 – Saudi Arabia quickly responded to FIFA’s statement that it was to take legal action in Saudi Arabia against pirate television channel beoutQ that broadcast every match of the World Cup in Russia illegally to the kingdom, saying that it welcomed the FIFA action.