Bundesliga loses broadcaster in the Middle East despite Bayern’s Champions League victory

We all know the Bundesliga as one of the fastest and most vibrant football leagues in the world. And with Bayern Munich’s Champions League win over PSG, one would have expected popularity for the team and league to balloon. Yet, many people will be unable to legally watch the league in the coming season.

One such place is the Middle Eastern region, where broadcasters Bein Sports have backed out of a deal to broadcast games — per Al Jazeera. Piracy was blamed as the biggest reason for Bein pulling out of negotiations.

The broadcaster had been paying around 40M Euros a season to show games in the region, so it’s a decent sized revenue stream to the Bundesliga that has just been dried up. However, most African and Asian countries also don’t have any official means of watching games. Meaning the Bundesliga could be missing out on potentially hundreds of millions in TV rights.

It sure is puzzling that the Bundesliga isn’t broadcasting to billions of people. Especially so, considering the best team in the world plays in it and competition is at its highest in years. Hopefully the league can find new broadcasters in these different regions so that everyone can enjoy football in one of the world’s greatest leagues.