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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Karl[/i] [br]JFF exec says Reid's World Cup TV, marketing rights claim untrue Ian Burnett, Observer staff reporter Saturday, March 19, 2005 George Evans, first vice-president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has refuted an allegation made by former JFF general secretary Horace Reid that the present administration could have withdrawn from the controversial collective World Cup 2006 TV and Marketing Rights Agreement between the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and member countries. In fact, Evans, who has responsibility for marketing at the JFF, has accused Reid of being "disingenuous" when he made the allegation, because senior members of the past administration did not fully explain details of the contractual agreement to the JFF board. He also said that the deal was signed long before the present administrators took office. Evans, in supporting his administration's decision to withdraw from the 2010 World Cup campaign deal with the CFU, has charged that the federation, strapped for cash at present, could have lost in excess of J$100 million since the 1998 World Cup campaign, as a direct result of the current agreement. "Firstly, in today's world, football is not driven financially just by transfers, gate receipts and merchandising," Evans told Sporting World last week. "TV and marketing rights are the engine that drives football, both at club and national association levels, and in respect, that applies to the JFF." TV rights, among other issues, received national prominence last year, and again recently when some members of the current administration questioned the wisdom of the previous Captain Horace Burrell-led administration signing the collective World Cup 2006 TV and Marketing Rights Agreement. Reid, in an earlier interview with the Observer, aimed at "setting out the facts" regarding some issues that were brought into the public domain, and which he claimed were "accompanied by misinformation and innuendoes", said the present JFF leaders could have withdrawn at the congress in Paris, France, but they refused to do so. Said he: "It is important to point out that subsequent to the debate raised by the JFF in May 2004, this matter was addressed forthrightly at the 27th CFU Congress staged at the Hotel Sofitel-Forum Rive Gauche, Paris, on May 19, 2004. The JFF had the opportunity to withdraw from the agreement, but did not do so." At last month's 28th Ordinary Congress of the CFU in Barbados, the matter of TV rights was again raised and president Austin "Jack" Warner was quite forceful in reiterating his view that each country within the CFU should renew their contracts for the benefit of the region as a whole. Declaring that "there is nothing to hide", Warner appeared angry that contracts sent to member associations were not signed and returned by some countries, including Jamaica. This current agreement gives the CFU full rights for the 2006 World Cup TV and marketing rights from all member countries of the region. The rights were sold to a third party (Traffic Sports USA) for US$900,000. Part of the proceeds are then distributed to the members in proportion to the number of home games played and their advancement throughout the various rounds of the qualification. This agreement was also in effect for the 2002 World Cup campaign. The JFF earned US$47,000 for its participation in the 2006 World Cup campaign, and not US$57,000 as previously stated. "We have learnt more about the deal - as to what it entails - in the last two weeks than we had known in the last seven years," charged Evans. "We had signed it away to the CFU, who in turn, in 1998 and 2002 sold it to Interforever Sports, and in 2006 to Traffic Sports, so it is disingenuous for Horace Reid to say that we could have withdrawn at the 27th Ordinary Congress, because the fact is that the agreement had already been signed between Jamaica and the CFU, and in turn between the CFU and Traffic Sports." Evans said that if Jamaica had withdrawn from that particular scenario, that contract between CFU and Traffic Sports would have been null. "It would not have been worth the paper it was written on because without Jamaica, and Trinidad to a lesser extent, in such an arrangement, nobody would want to buy the TV and marketing rights from the region." Reid, who is now executive director of the Jamaica-based CFU Marketing Division, said that the CFU, at the time of this initiative, recognised the tremendous disadvantage to the countries in the region, outside of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, in attracting funding for their football development from World Cup qualification proceeds. In an attempt to broaden the development of the sport in the Caribbean region, the president of the CFU sought and received unanimous support for this initiative from the member countries of the CFU. But now the board of the JFF is convinced that the federation can generate much more money from TV and marketing rights, while continuing to assist the CFU in monetary terms to help the lesser countries of the region. "What has happened is from 1998 when these deals were negotiated between the JFF and the CFU, I believe that it was a deal that was kept shrouded in secrecy, and not brought fully to the board of the JFF, because had it been done as it was on Saturday (March 5), I believe that board members of the JFF would not have agreed so willy-nilly, and willingly to sign away those rights," claimed Evans. "When we calculate those TV rights from 1998, 2002, and 2006, it is our estimation, and I would say that is a conservative estimation, that had we, the JFF, kept those TV and marketing rights and used them as a negotiating tool ourselves, we would have generated in excess of J$100 million," added Evans. He further argued that the JFF could have also earned in excess of US$300,000 to US$400,000 each from the three home games against the US in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 campaigns alone, if they had the rights and had negotiated with Fox Sports or ESPN. Sign boards, he said, could earn the federation between US$6,000 and US$10,000 per board, but that too, he claimed, was given away under the existing deals. So bad was it, said Evans, that the JFF's major sponsors, such as Air Jamaica, Red Stripe, Digicel, Wray and Nephew, Supreme Ventures and Uhlsports, just to name a few, were relegated to "second tier" positions where they "were barely visible" at home games at the National Stadium. Evans said Traffic Sports had about 26 sign boards on display at the National Stadium for the game against the USA in August. "Sign board arrangement had caused a major discomfort with the JFF's sponsors, in that the contractual agreements, some of which were signed by the previous administration, gave our sponsors specific sign board placements at the National Stadium. However, this was overturned by Traffic Sports, who assumed the primary positions. "The easiest and best way to explain the situation is like having a piece of land and selling it to two buyers," explained Evans. He insisted that the JFF has not benefitted from the CFU deal, and he believes he has the backing of the FIFA constitution. ". we must, and should have retained the rights ourselves," Evans said. "Our constitution (JFF) in article 30, speaks to the fact that our TV rights belong to us. It is further substantiated within article 39 of the FIFA rules, where it quite clearly states that TV rights and media rights belong to the international associations. "When you look at the deal, I don't believe that Jamaica benefitted in the way that it ought to have done, especially as the major player in all of this," he said. Evans said he is not opposed to helping in the regional development of the sport. "In principle, I do believe that it is the right of the top countries within CFU to assist in the development with the lesser countries, and in so doing, our proposal is that we keep our TV rights and offer a percentage to CFU to assist in the development of the other countries." At the board meeting of March 5, it was mandated that the JFF advises the CFU, via a letter, of its intention to withdraw from the collective TV rights deal, but with the intention to donate a percentage of its earnings towards the development of the lesser countries. - burnetti@jamaicaobserver.com [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.