The Premier League has decided to launch the procedure to terminate the broadcasting rights of the competition in Russia, after the invasion launched in Ukraine, several British media announced on Monday. The boss of the organizer of the English football championship, Richard Masters, had indicated last week that his contracts would be reviewed. The Sky Sports television channel and the Daily Mail newspaper claim that instructions have been given to lawyers to start the process of terminating contracts with Russian broadcasters.
The Premier League declined to comment on the information but an announcement should take place within the week, assure the media. The Russian rights for the current season are held by a company called Rambler, a subsidiary of Sberbank, and matches are shown on the Okko streaming platform. The amount of this contract is estimated at 6 million pounds (7.2 M€), a drop of water on the 1.3 billion pounds (1.5 billion euros) brought in annually by the retransmission of the Premier League abroad for the period 2019-2022.
Match TV, owned by energy giant Gazprom, won the contract for the next six seasons. The English Football League (EFL), which manages the rights for divisions 2 to 4 of English football, should also terminate its Russian contracts with the same actor. Last weekend, the Premier League had decided that demonstrations of solidarity with Ukraine would be carried out before each of the ten matches of the 28th day. The captains of the 20 teams wore armbands in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, a minute of applause was organized before kick-off and messages of solidarity were broadcast on the luminous panels.