Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has allowed all domestic TV stations to temporarily film and air live football games of the top-tier Super League pending a final decision.
This instruction nullifies the decision recently issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism that temporarily awarded the rights to digital TV service provider AVG.
Earlier, VPF -- who is in charge of sales, marketing and competition organization of the Vietnam Football Federation -- claimed the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) of violating a deal signed between AVG and VFF in late 2011 which gave AVG exclusive ownership of the TV rights for 20 years for an annual cost of VND6 billion (US$286,000), and a 10% increase each year.
VPF rejected the legal base of the deal on several grounds, one of which was that AVG hadn’t been licensed to join the TV market in Vietnam before it signed the contract. Another was that VFF hadn’t asked for the permission of clubs, which are also owners of the broadcasting rights, before signing the contract.
VPF later talked with the Vietnam Television (VTV) and came to a preliminary agreement to sell the rights of the 2012 Super League to VTV for VND7 billion ($333,300), one billion dong more than the deal with AVG.
Khatoco Khanh Hoa FC chairman Le Tien Anh told Tuoi Tre if the price of selling TV rights to AVG for a season didn’t even provide enough money to buy a single player, that deal was indeed unacceptable.
According to Le Tien Anh, on the average, the 28 clubs in the top two leagues spend VND1.5 trillion ($71.4 million) a year, and the VFF has sold the TV rights of the leagues for VND6 billion a year, or 0.004% of this spending.
“In Europe, the value of TV rights makes up 60-70% of the income of clubs,” Anh said.
Anh said it wouldn’t be fair to compare Vietnam’s Super League with European leagues, but the deal that VFF signed with AVG which would constrain the progress of the league for 20 years was indeed unwise.
In his instruction, the PM asked the sports ministry to look into the legal basis of the deal.
AVG CEO Pham Nhat Vu told Tuoi Tre he would comply with the instruction.
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