And again about the telepool

I look forward to tomorrow's broadcast of the opening match of Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Championship. And this impatience only intensifies in the light of the next round of traditional showdowns around the telepool.

Sergey Mokhnik, deputy general director of Dynamo, clearly explained the club's position: “We wanted to be given the opportunity to show (even belatedly) our matches on national channels. It was not possible to agree with Setanta ... ".

In my opinion, everything is logical. Especially now, in wartime conditions, football remains that little outlet that can at least slightly cheer us up, and it seems to me that it is especially important now that broadcasts of matches are available to the residents of our country. Of course, we are also talking about the popularization of football in general, and Dynamo, Dnipro-1, Zorya, Metalist, Rukh in particular. Which club would not be interested in growing the number of its own fans? Who is not aware that the same Dynamo will attract much more viewers to the screens at 2 + 2 than at Setant?

With regard to Dynamo, there is another important reason: the Kyiv club is the only one in Ukraine that has a club television channel! And who will need this channel if it does not have the right to broadcast matches of the first team? In addition to the TV channel, the club is actively developing its own YouTube channel. And what, to deprive him of the opportunity to show matches of the first team?

I emphasize: Dynamo did not object to the transfer of television rights to Setante, but on the condition that it was shown with a maximum 15-minute delay on a public channel. That is, they wanted to repeat the practice gained in four matches of the Champions League qualification with Fenerbahce and Sturm. If you want to watch live: buy the broadcast on Setant, otherwise you can only watch the game with a 15-minute delay.

Yes, now there are few places where you can see football on a public channel. Most strong and even medium-sized championships sell TV rights to one or even several broadcasters, who agree among themselves on what and how to show to whom. But let's keep in mind that in most countries, broadcasters offer clubs quite decent amounts that cover the expenses of a football club, if not completely, then a significant part of them. It has become profitable for local clubs (it has become profitable to give the rights to broadcast their UEFA matches (if we are talking about European competitions, and our teams are no exception) or national leagues / federations (domestic tournaments). In Ukraine, the latter is not beneficial to everyone, and a third of the clubs in our Premier League , decided to independently engage in the sale of television rights.

By the way, it is by no means Ukraine or Dynamo that are pioneers in this. Benfica - the most popular team in Portugal - for several seasons refused to participate in the general telepool and broadcast their home matches exclusively on the club channel. A similar picture is in Greece with PAOK. And Sevilla, if you remember, went even further. There was a period when she refused to sell UEFA TV rights, and in one of the seasons when she won the second most important European Cup, few people outside of Spain saw her home matches. Ukrainian fans were also among the victims, because at one of the stages of Sevilla, Shakhtar passed.

And right now in Spain, three giants - Real Madrid, Barça and Athletic Bilbao (as well as Oviedo from the second tier) refused to ratify the La Liga deal with the CVC, which provided for the sale of 11% of their audiovisual rights by each club. La Liga cannot force refuseniks to join the CVC deal, just because the vast majority of clubs (and this is not 11 out of 16, as in Ukraine, but 38 out of 42!) voted for it. Also, La Liga does not have the right to take any penalties against refuseniks. And it doesn't matter if the four are right or not - they refused, and this is their business alone. They didn't receive a cent from the CVC. The investor is quietly working with the remaining 38 clubs, among which, for a second, there is not one of the three most iconic and popular teams in the country.

Why is such an attitude impossible for us? Why are they trying to force dissenters to join the majority by force and sanctions? Five clubs refused to cooperate with Setanta on the current terms - they do not receive money from the company, the remaining 11 agreed - they are with the money. Everything is simple!

Andrey Shakhov