MUMBAI: The Saudi government is in the crosshairs of football’s governing body FIFA for what can only be termed state sponsored piracy in the light of its open support to bootlegging network “BeOutQ”, which is headquartered in the kingdom.
FIFA on Friday accused BeOutQ of illegally broadcasting the opening games of the World Cup, and issued the following statement: “Fifa is aware that a pirate channel named BeoutQ has illegally distributed the opening matches of 2018 FIFA World Cup in the MENA region.
“Fifa takes infringements of its intellectual property very seriously and is exploring all options to stop the infringement of its rights, including in relation to action against legitimate organisations (emphasis ours) that are seen to support such illegal activities.
“We refute that BeOutQ has received any rights from FIFA to broadcast any FIFA event.”
While not saying it outright, the legitimate organisation FIFA is alluding is Riyadh-based satellite provider Arabsat, whose largest shareholder is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Arabsat has been openly retransmitting BeOutQ’s pirated signal of the ongoing World Cup.
For the record, it is Doha-based beIN Sports that holds media rights for FIFA in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. And that is where the root of the problem lies. BeOutQ sprung up as an in your face pirating TV station with beIN as its chief target in the wake of the declaration by Saudi Arabia (which its allies, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt rubber stamped) in June 2017 that Qatar was sponsoring terrorism in the region. Following the declaration, the Saudi Arabia-led bloc severed diplomatic and transport ties with Doha and imposed an economic blockade on the Gulf state.
After it launched its blockade, Saudi Arabia banned the sale of beIN broadcast boxes and stopped existing customers from renewing subscriptions. Which is what has led to the tournament not being officially broadcast in the country, despite its team having qualified for the World Cup.
The FIFA statement came a day after beIN announced it was broadcasting 22 World Cup matches for free across the MENA region as millions faced missing out.
Meanwhile, Africa’s football governing body was even more forthright in its condemnation, accusing BeOutQ of launching “a major piracy operation against beIN Media Group”. It made clear that it “strongly condemns the practice of the audiovisual piracy of sport events”, which it called “a real scourge for our industry”.
“The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) reminds that, it holds, on an exclusive basis, all the rights pertaining to its competitions, including all the related matches and any related official events, without any restrictions as to content, time, place and law,” its statement read. It said the rights to broadcast the tournament in a range of middle eastern and north African countries had been sold exclusively to beIN.
“CAF is determined to take all necessary steps against ‘BeOutQ’ if any of CAF matches is pirated.”
UK’s The Independent reports that Egypt – which is back in the World Cup this year after a 28-year absence – has also suggested that it could resort to piracy of beIN’s feeds to ensure that its country’s fans could watch the tournament. A statement from Egypt’s competition authority said that fans had a “a right” to watch the games, urged Fifa to make them available, and said that fans might be able to view copies of beIN’s streams instead.
The only country within the “boycotting bloc” that has not been openly advocating piracy of the World Cup signals is the UAE. Its broadcasters ultimately came to a deal with beIN, which is showing the tournament there, The Independent further reports.
