AIFF in last-minute scramble to broadcast India friendlies

AIFF are struggling to broadcast the two upcoming International Friendlies for India, against Oman and UAE respectively.

Having played their last international fixture in November 2019, India will be returning to action on Thursday, March 25 when they take on Oman in an International Friendly. Four days later, they will also face the UAE in another friendly clash. Fans of the Blue Tigers have been eagerly waiting to see their favourite team back on the pitch.

However, they were dealt a severe blow earlier this month when it was revealed that there would be no broadcast of both games. Over the past few years, Indian football has been on the rise. So have been the number of fans and they surely deserved to watch their national team in action. Hence, soon afterwards, hordes of them took to social media to voice their protest against the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with the hashtag #AIFFWakeUp.

Khel Now has learnt that when the friendlies were agreed between the AIFF and Oman's and UAE's federations, there was also a clause in the contracts that allowed the away team (India) to take the feed from home broadcasters or from the home FA (UAE)'s production team. As a result, three broadcasters including Star Sports had expressed an interest to telecast the games in India.

"As soon as the friendlies were agreed, Star Sports and two other broadcasters showed keenness to broadcast the games. Since then, Star Sports also apparently tried to follow up with AIFF to get the technical details of the broadcast, for many days. However, they did not receive any official communication from them during this period," sources close to the developments informed Khel Now.

According to them, this was followed by Star Sports and another major broadcaster informing the federation that they cannot schedule the games anymore due to logistical and technical issues like the scheduling of other live sports, unavailability of satellite information and so on. Star Sports also took to Twitter last Thursday, to confirm that they do not have the rights to broadcast the two friendlies. They had previously issued a deadline to AIFF for the confirmation of airing the feed and when that day passed, they made the public announcement from their Twitter handle.

In a more shocking development, Khel Now also understands that there are accusations from parties involved that certain football officials are trying to involve a third-party agency (other than India, UAE and Oman FA's) to route the broadcast deal commercially to India.

"A third party is also involved in this problem and that has caused a delay from AIFF's end in communicating with broadcasters. This third party is asking for a very high amount to air the feed. The money in question is not a standard amount and somebody is trying to make money through the telecast," the sources asserted.

"As of now, it is so late to fix the issue that even if a telecast happens eventually, it will be a very scrappy one as no details regarding the satellite and so on have been clarified," they added. No details - technical or otherwise - on any potential broadcast have been issued officially by the AIFF yet, at the time of writing.

However, it also needs to be understood that both the games will be produced in the UAE and will be aired on local channels across the country as well as in Oman.

In a further development a senior official at the AIFF has claimed that no broadcasters approached them to televise the matches. "Broadcast rights lie with Oman TV for the Oman game. Despite several attempts to communicate with the network, including follow-ups and emails, no response has been received so far. The Indian FA are now working with their Omani counterparts to find a solution to the impasse. However, a broadcast for the game against the UAE has been arranged," the functionary exclusively told Khel Now on condition of anonymity.

*The story was last updated at 10:09pm on Saturday 20 March, 2021.