Solid funds will be poured into the Russian Cup – Newspaper Kommersant No. 146 (7347) of 08/12/2022

In the near future, the Russian football authorities will have to choose the owners of media rights to the Cup of the country. This season, it will be held in a new format, expanded due to sanctions and slots released on the calendar, and it seems that for the first time it can turn into a commercially profitable competition for participants. According to Kommersant, both options proposed for consideration, including the one under which Yandex will receive the rights along with Match TV and which is preferred by most clubs in the Russian Premier League (RPL), provide for revenues of up to 2 billion rubles

At the general meeting of the Russian Premier League held on Thursday, a very topical issue for it, as well as for representatives of other divisions, was considered – about media rights to the Russian Cup, which should be held in a new format. In the calendar of the next season, due to international sanctions, which deprived, in particular, domestic clubs of European cups, a lot of “voids” have formed. Initially, representatives of the top division teams expected to fill these slots with the help of a new tournament – the RPL Cup. The developers of the concept of the competition argued that it would give participants the opportunity to earn through various contracts that complement those associated with the championship: for media rights, with a betting partner and title sponsor. The potential income of clubs from participation in the new competition was estimated at billions of rubles.

The strongest teams in the Premier League in the current situation are in dire need of a variety of sources of income in order to stop losses, for example, from missing European competitions.

The tournament project, however, was rejected after the publication of “Match TV” open letter, addressed to both leading domestic football structures – the Russian Premier League and the Russian Football Union (RPL) and telling just about the position of the channel in relation to the RPL Cup. Match TV pointed out that the creation of a new tournament “will have a negative impact on the media attractiveness of the Russian Championship and the Russian Football Cup, which will entail corresponding consequences for all parties involved.” The threat was too serious. After all, it is Match TV that is actually the main commercial partner of the RPL. In October 2021 he rolled over a four-year agreement to purchase the rights to broadcast her matches, roughly quadrupling the amount of the agreement. The new contract comes into force just in the coming season. In the first two years, according to its terms, the broadcaster will pay the league 6.6 billion rubles each, in the next two years – 7.7 billion rubles each.

As a result, clubs decided to refuse from the RPL Cup in favor of the Russian Cup according to the modified formula. It is assumed that it will practically coincide with the one that was planned to be used in the buried project, including the double elimination system peeped in eSports: it provides that the teams that suffered defeat at an early stage still retain a chance to break through to the final.

Speaking about what happened at the general meeting of the RPL, acting president Alexander Alaev told TASSthat by a “majority of votes” the clubs of the top division chose the “commercial partnership model” proposed by Yandex and the betting company BetBoom.

In this case, the matches will be divided between the services of “Yandex” and “Match TV”. According to Mr. Alaev, “the main selection factors were the desire of the clubs to change, to new broadcasting platforms and to win a new audience.”

The recommendation will be sent to the RFU Executive Committee for consideration. It is he who must make the final decision on the distribution of media rights.

A source from Kommersant, who is familiar with the course of the discussion at the general meeting, clarified that the option indicated by Alexander Alaev has an alternative. This is a combination of Match TV and another betting company Fonbet. At the same time, the interlocutor of Kommersant emphasized that “in terms of cost”, the two options do not differ much from each other. In both cases, we are talking about the amount of about 2 billion rubles. Moreover, the “basic”, guaranteed part of the payments included in the option with Yandex, which is going to show the games of the Russian Cup on the Kinopoisk platform, is even somewhat more modest, and the “ceiling” can only be achieved if “providing certain indicators for the demand for the tournament among the audience “. However, many club leaders still found it more interesting, because “it represents a change in the template and work for the future”: “After all, we are obliged to attract an Internet audience, which often does not coincide with television.”

One of the top managers working in the RPL noted in a conversation with Kommersant that whatever proposal the RFU approves, it will in any case mean, albeit a small, financial breakthrough. He explained that before the Cup of Russia “in fact, there was no commercial component, and even a victory in it only beat off the costs of participation”: “Now this tournament will bring some income.”

Alexey Dospekhov