By David Owen
April 20 – Infront Sports & Media, the Swiss-based sports marketing company recently acquired by Chinese businessman Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group, has unveiled new deals with three Asian football associations.
The company, which is headed by FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s nephew Philippe, has closed multi-year agreements with the Bangladesh Football Federation, the Laos Football Federation and the Football Association of Thailand.
For each, Infront said, it would handle distribution of international media rights for home matches, including both qualifiers and friendlies. The company will market all live/delayed, highlight and news rights across all platforms and for all territories outside the respective domestic territories.
None of the trio is exactly a power in the global game, with Thailand currently 142 in the FIFA rankings, Bangladesh 167 and Laos 178. Asian qualifiers failed to win a single match at last year’s World Cup in Brazil.
Ian Mathie, managing director of Infront Pan-Asia, said: “Football is king in Asia with national team matches and competitions creating key content for broadcasters…We are honoured to add these emerging football properties to our portfolio.”
Infront already has a partnership with the Football Association of 2022 World Cup host Qatar, handled through the joint venture, AspireInfront.
It was announced in February that Dalian Wanda had reached a deal to acquire Infront from the private equity firm Bridgepoint for €1.05 billion.
Disclosure of the new agreements comes just ahead of the Ordinary Congress of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to be held in Bahrain at the end of this month.
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