UEFA set to launch streaming service; announces Aleksander Čeferin has been re-elected

According to a report by The Independent, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) will launch its own streaming platform that will be only be available outside Europe and North America.

UEFA is set to launch a global Over The Top (OTT) streaming platform for football fans that could represent a significant shift in the broadcasting of the sport. Aleksander Čeferin, UEFA’s president for another four years after being re-elected unopposed on Thursday morning, is behind the proposals that will see a streaming service provisionally named UEFA TV launched around the world.

The Independent understands that the OTT platform will only be available outside Europe and North America after its launch, with the Champions League unlikely to be available on UEFA’s platform until 2021 given the existing contracts signed with broadcasters around the world.

With a third continental competition arriving in 2021, though, and a number of European domestic leagues having gone unsold to many broadcasters, there is scope for UEFA to provide a streaming service with a wide variety of football dependent on where users are living.

As indicated above, UEFA also formally announced that Čeferin will remain atop the association’s pecking order as reported on the UEFA website.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin will continue at the helm of European football for the next four years after being re-elected for a second term of office at the 43rd UEFA Ordinary Congress in Rome.

The 51-year old Slovenian, who was elected as UEFA’s seventh President in September 2016, was confirmed in office by acclamation on Thursday by delegates from UEFA’s 55 member associations, and pledged that “unity, hope, respect and solidarity” would be key elements in UEFA’s strategy, mission and activities during the next term of his presidency.

Čeferin said that he expects a collaborative effort to help guide the organization’s future.

We will work hand in hand with our partner, the ECA [European Club Association], to design the club competitions of the future. Club competitions that are in keeping with the times, full of excitement and intensity, and open; a new type of competition that will bring a different dimension to European football, but still based on two principles on which we will not give way. Clubs from all 55 member associations will have the opportunity to take part, and qualification will be based on sporting merit.

Čeferin then circled back to discuss the streaming service that should help UEFA’s goal to reach more fans.

This is why I am pleased to announce that UEFA will be launching its OTT platform in the next six months. We are fully aware that a revolution is under way, and are in the process of agreeing historic partnerships with the world’s leading companies in this field.

We have already started to move in this direction thanks to a sponsorship deal with the Alibaba Group. This partnership is more than a simple sponsorship deal. It’s a first agreement that opens up new horizons, such as the creation of a center of excellence in new football technologies or joint e-commerce projects.

Together, we are inventing the future, and our only limit is our imagination.