Thread by @jpearcejourno, A little bit of background in BeIN's reasons for objecting to the [...]

James Pearce

jpearcejourno

A little bit of background in BeIN& #39;s reasons for objecting to the deal for #nufc fans who don& #39;t already know about it.

Without digging too deep into geopolitical relations in the Middle East, it& #39;s fair to say Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren& #39;t best of mates. (1) https://twitter.com/NUFC360/status/1252709550484062211">https://twitter.com/NUFC360/s...

https://twitter.com/NUFC360/status/1252709550484062211

In 2012, Qatar owned Al Jazeera launched BeIN Sports - a subscription sports provider aimed at offering premium sports coverage across the Middle East.
It& #39;s held rights to the Olympics, the World Cup, Champions League, La Liga, and Premier League - pretty much dominating MENA.(2)

The 2017 diplomatic crisis between Qatar and Saudi meant BeIN was banned from selling subscriptions in Saudi Arabia. Because of the way sports rights work, that meant Saudi viewers couldn& #39;t legally watch those sports that BeIN had exclusive rights to.

Enter BeoutQ. (3)

BeoutQ was a new subscription service which essentially pirated BeIN& #39;s channels and repackaged them as its own. It began inline but soon moved to satellite TV. It even had an ad campaign to promote it, which featured Saud al-Qahtani, a former adviser to Saudi& #39;s King Abdullah (4)

Notably the subscription was free if you bought a BeoutQ box. And it wasn& #39;t just limited to Saudi - it has spread across the Middle East, essentially wrecking BeIN& #39;s premium model.

So what& #39;s the link with the future #nufc owners? (5)

The Saudis have always denied a link to BeoutQ but it is widely accepted that the stream for the service is being transmitted from an Arabsat Satellite (a French court ruled this is the case in 2019 after tests). Arabsat is part owned, & based, in Riyadh - the Saudi capital. (6)

BeIN has commissioned several studies into BeoutQ, launched court proceedings in several countries. Sky, BBC and other broadcasters who - worried about it& #39;s broadcast of other sports - have called on politicians to intervene. FIFA and other sports bodies have condemned BeoutQ.(7)

Yet still Saudi denies any involvement.

What does this all mean for #nufc? Well broadcasters spend a shitload of money with the Premier League and money talks, so that is a worry for the #NUFCTakeover. BUT - and I stress this - Saudi denies the links. For the PL to block...(8)

The takeover for this reason would be hugely controversial and would open a massive can of worms or potentially lead to a long and challenging lawsuit.

Fingers crossed that won& #39;t be the case - but there& #39;s some hopefully helpful background. (9)

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