Octagon and Dentsu Win Euro 2004 TV Rights Outside Europe
The UEFA Executive Committee had very positive and constructive meetings in Copenhagen. In addition to the Executive meeting a very useful meeting with Mr Brian Mikkelsen took place yesterday.
UEFA also hosted a gathering of the European Sports Forum representatives and officials from the European Commission and a variety of European governments as part of UEFA’s ongoing work on European matters.
During the Executive Committee, the following decisions were taken:
As part of the European football family’s stand against racism in football, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed to create a new fund to help member associations to initiate anti-racism programmes. This fund will provide:
* UEFA to make a contribution of up to CHF 50’000 to cover 50% of the budget of anti-racism activities organised by member associations
* Member associations to submit project proposals to UEFA for approval and subsequent financial assistance
* UEFA to make an initial provision of CHF 2.6 million (52 x 50’000) out of the charity account for the 2002/03 season
The same financial support will be donated to those countries most affected by the floods in Europe earlier this year. This fund will help repair damaged facilities to Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Albania, Spain, Russia and France.
The UEFA Executive Committee has also agreed on the procedure for choosing the EURO 2008 hosts which is summarized in the attached ‘Media summary’.
Regarding the hosting of UEFA’s own tournaments it reached the following agreements:
* UEFA’s Regions Cup 2002/2003 will be hosted by Germany
* European Women’s Championship 2003/2005 will be hosted by England
* European Women’s Under 19 Championship 2003/2004 will be hosted in Finland
The request from the Liechtenstein FA for the use of temporary stands for the EURO 2004™qualifying match on 29th March 2003 was rejected for safety and security reasons.
In addition the Executive Committee agreed to support the decision of the UEFA Emergency Panel to postpone the international games involving Israel and Cyprus earlier this year.
Finally, the Executive Committee agreed to award the contracts for the marketing of the non-European TV rights for EURO 2004™ to Octagon Worldwide Ltd and Dentsu.
DECISION-MAKING PROCESS FOR EURO 2008 for the meetings on 12 December 2002:
1. The UEFA National Teams Committee will make an evaluation based on the evaluation reports.
2. Apart from the technical evaluation the committee members will also take into account other considerations such as government support and enthusiasm of the bidding country’s public.
3. This committee will not eliminate bids. Instead, at the end of the debates each eligible member shall deliver a personal ranking of the bids based on objective judgement. This will be communicated to the UEFA Executive Committee.
4. The eight eligible members of the Executive Committee then enter in a discussion with the objective to reduce the seven bids to two or three. Simple majority is required for this elimination process.
5. Once the Executive Committee has made the selection of the two or three bids for final decision, all Executive Committee members not affected by the remaining bids are admitted into the discussion and take part in the decision.
6. At the end of the discussions the members will vote. If a bidder receives an absolute majority (half plus one of the eligible members) then this bidder is chosen to be the host of EURO 2008.
7. If no such majority is obtained, then the bidder with the lowest vote is eliminated. In the event of an equal vote between the two bidders with the lowest vote an additional ballot involving these two bidders will have to take place in order to eliminate one of them.
8. In this case, a final ballot will occur between the two remaining bidders. The bidder with the highest vote wins.
9. If there is no decision according to this procedure, the vote of the chairman is decisive.
For further information please contact:
Uefa
T: +41 22 994 45 59
F: +41 22 994 37 37
W: uefa.com