Financial losses hit Qatar’s beIN Sports network

Hani Daniel

Qatar’s financial crisis has negatively impacted its beIN Sports network, which has begun to lay off more than 40% of its employees, including anchors, analysts and administrative cadres, as the Middle East’s most prominent network for football matches and various international championships has been left unable to pay the salaries of its employees or even its financial obligations to the European sports federations.

The crisis started at the end of 2019, when Qatar was affected by the Arab boycott and the blockade of international supervision by FIFA and the UEFA in terms of monitoring the network’s sources, as well as that of the Paris Saint-Germain Club, owned by Nasser Al-Khulaifi, in light of accusations of the French club violating the rules of fair play and tampering with the sponsorship contracts and the club’s income.

The crisis was aggravated by the corona pandemic and the stopping of sports tournaments worldwide. Subsequently, advertisements and broadcast matches stopped, which compounded the crisis until the channel dismissed a large number of employees due to the inability to pay their salaries.

The channel then found itself in a bigger problem due to its inability to pay the premiums allocated to world leagues’ sporting championships and to address the ties of a number of leagues in Italy, Germany, France, England, and Spain by reducing the payments given that the championships have been suspended. A shocking response came from Italy, which prevented the network from broadcasting any match in the Italian League or the exploitation of any previous rights unless the required financial obligations were fulfilled.

This comes at a time when the network did not compensate the subscribers during the last period, collecting all its financial rights and subscriptions without compensating its subscribers or providing alternatives in the wake of not broadcasting any new games.

Among those preparing to leave beIN Sports are presenter Al Akhdar Barish, commentator Khaled al-Ghoul, presenter Khaled Yassine, analyst Jamal al-Sharif, analyst Alessandro Altobelli, presenter Moez Boulahia, presenter Ania El-Afandi, presenter Khawla Ben Lachhab, presenter Nizar Lakhal, presenter Majid al-Shojaei, analyst Houssem Hadj Ali, and programmer Ramadan Saqr.

One of the most famous broadcasters at beIN, Tunisian presenter Issam Chaouli, is also expected to depart. He had demands to renew his contract with the channel prior to the outbreak of the corona crisis, but the network was unable to meet his demands.

The next stage will be the most difficult for the Qatari network, especially as it works to promote programs and videos for the 2022 World Cup.

The Qatari network had previously attempted to win over a number of media figures in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia to publicize the Qatari World Cup, but these offers were rejected, although these personalities accepted offers from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which became a permanent headquarters for them. Among the most prominent of these Russian faces was official 2018 World Cup Ambassador Victoria Lopyreva.

The sports network is expected to find itself in a major crisis as a result of accusations of corruption against its president, Nasser Al-Khulaifi, in cases pending before Swiss courts, as well as financial supervision by the European Football Association (UEFA) against the buying and selling operations at Paris Saint-Germain, as well as the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 and the European Nations Cup Euro 2020, while the Champions League matches for clubs are expected to be completed through a mini-cycle, thus depriving the network of collecting a lot of financial resources, deepening its problems due to the crisis of corruption and internal disputes.

The repercussions of the crisis could extend to the 2022 World Cup, especially as the postponements may reach the World Cup qualifying matches, while most sporting events have stopped until the end of the year. The Qatar network will find itself in a dilemma by laying off a number of other employees and its inability to promote the 2022 World Cup as was planned. Exporting more financial and marketing crises to the Qatari network may lead to sacrificing Khulaifi or searching for a number of European partners to compensate for these losses.