The League General Assembly confirmed the winners of the tender
The League General Assembly confirmed the winners of the tender
"We are delighted and pleasantly surprised by the amount that Czech professional football will receive from the currently evaluated tenders. At the same time, however, it should be noted that everything will be evaluated when other tenders are concluded, including the one that will be announced at the beginning of the year for the title partner of both competitions," said LFA President Dušan Svoboda.
In addition to the tender for the titular partner of the first and second league, the League Football Association will also launch a tender for the sale of TV and streaming rights for the purposes of betting on foreign markets, audio and match highlights.
The current tender for the provision of audiovisual rights for the domestic market has been split into three separate tenders. The bidders were seeking the rights to televise the first league, i.e. FORTUNA:LIGA, for the territory of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the rights to televise the second league, i.e. FORTUNA:NÁRODNÍ LIGA, for the territory of the Czech Republic and the rights to stream matches of the first league, i.e. FORTUNA:LIGA, for the purposes of fixed-odds betting in the Czech Republic.
The League General Assembly of LFA decided to approve and sign contracts with the following entities:
The winner of the tender for the rights to broadcast FORTUNA:LIGA for the Czech Republic and Slovakia is O2 TV, which has broadcast the domestic top competition for the last five seasons. The broadcaster will now be obliged, among other things, to provide a VAR system for all matches, including the so-called calibrated line technology for assessing offside situations.
There will also be a big change in the way F:L can be promoted, as both the league itself and individual clubs will now be able to work directly with footage from the game as part of their presentation on their websites and social media.
The winner of the tender for the rights to stream FORTUNA:LIGA matches for the purposes of betting on the territory of the Czech Republic was Betano - KAIZEN GAMING CZ LIMITED.
The winner of the tender for the television broadcasting of the FORTUNA:NATIONAL LEAGUE for the territory of the Czech Republic was Pragosport.
These three contracts will bring more than CZK 430 million annually to Czech professional football. "We evaluate the resulting bids very positively and I am glad that together with the clubs we prepared a properly set tender, which the offered contract values prove. We registered interest from both domestic and foreign entities," said Daniel Hajný, LFA's sales and marketing director.
Schedule for the 2024/25 season
In addition to the tender for selected audiovisual rights for FORTUNA:LIGA and FORTUNA:NATIONAL LEAGUE, the League General Assembly also dealt with other important issues. One of the key points was the approval of the schedule for the 2024/25 season. Thus, the schedule will again feature 35 rounds. Both F:L and F:NL will kick off Round 1 on the weekend of 20-21 July 2024.
"There is one significant change in the schedule for the fall portion. The fourth round of the Mol Cup will not be played in the fall of the 2024/25 season, as has been the custom, but has been moved to the spring of the competition. Thanks to this, the whole schedule will be shifted and the extra-curricular part of the top competition will also be affected, in which there will no longer be a Wednesday inserted round, but all duels will take place on weekend dates," commented LFA Executive Director Tomáš Bárta.
Extension of the Framework Agreement between the LFA and the FAČR
The Framework Agreement between the League Football Association and the Football Association of the Czech Republic, which regulates the relations and obligations between the two entities, was also the topic of the League General Assembly. The meeting approved the exercise of the option right of the Framework Agreement, which was signed on 17 March with an effective period of four years, from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2028.
From the outset, both parties had the option to exercise a mutual option to extend the Framework Agreement for a further four years, which the LFA decided to exercise. It will now run until 30 June 2032.
