FPT Telecom, the telecommunications provider in Vietnam, has acquired rights in the country to all tournaments organised by the Asian Football Confederation in a three-year deal.

The contract covers all major AFC team and club competitions from 2021 to 2024, including AFC Asia Qualifiers to the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the 2022 U23 Championship and 2023 AFC Asian Cup in China, as well as the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup, Women’s Olympic Football Tournament and U20 and U17 Women’s Championships in 2022. 

Club events include the AFC Champions League, AFC Cup and AFC Futsal Club Championships. 

FPT will use the deal to provide the country with extensive coverage of Vietnamese national team and club matches through its FPT TV channels and pay services. 

The rights were secured through a tender process launched by Football Marketing Asia, the agency that sells commercial rights on behalf of the AFC.

Hoang Viet Anh, chief executive of FPT Telecom, said: “This is an effort to offer our customers the most diverse high-quality content as well as an outstanding user experience. FPT Telecom will accompany football fans all over the country through dramatic matches and attractive fixtures of AFC’s major national team and club competitions, by covering all Vietnam national team and club matches across various channels and digital platforms.”

Patrick Murphy, chief executive of FMA, added: “The deal will ensure that football fans in Vietnam are able to access high quality AFC competition programming, benefiting from FPT Telecom’s innovative services. We are confident that they will be a great partner to further build AFC’s national team and club competitions in Vietnam, one of Asian football’s most passionate territories.”

Earlier this year, Next Media, the Vietnamese media firm, bought the broadcast rights for the 2020 AFC Cup, which has been postponed to 2021, from Lagardere Sports Asia, now Sportfive, reserving redistribution rights to broadcast in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in a deal worth around $5 million.

Other deals done by FMA in Asia for the 2021-24 cycle include: Saran Media International covering Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; CJ ENM in South Korea; MNC in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea; and Elta TV in Taiwan.

The FMA-AFC contract does not include the Middle East and North Africa, where the confederation is handling the sale of rights itself. 

Sportcal