Zug, Switzerland / Milan, Italy, 17 July 2008 – The Italian Lega Calcio (Lega Nazionale Professionisti), the governing body of the Italian professional football leagues, has appointed Infront Sports & Media as its exclusive advisor in exploiting the national and international media rights for all its properties including Serie A, starting from the 2010/11 season, for six seasons.

On Tuesday, this decision was unanimously ratified by the League’s assembly. The company will consult Lega Calcio in centralising the distribution and marketing of audiovisual rights. Italy’s Serie A is one of the biggest and most popular football leagues in the world.  

 

"A historic agreement"

Antonio Matarrese, President of Lega Calcio, commented: “This is an historic agreement for us, the beginning of a new era for Italian football. The Lega’s Assembly is to be congratulated on its careful analysis of the various highly competitive proposals. All the clubs agreed that the Infront offer not only provides strong financial guarantees but also best meets the needs of both Serie A and B and the interests of Italian football as a whole. As in a good marriage, we looking forward to building a relationship with Infront based on mutual trust, respect, loyalty and shared objectives and working with Infront Italy's President Marco Bogarelli, Andrea Locatelli and Philippe Blatter and their experienced support teams.”

 

Marco Bogarelli, Member of Infront’s Board of Directors and President of Infront Italy, said: “We are delighted with this result, which we see as recognition of our long experience in the management of media rights to major sports properties, both in Italy and on a worldwide basis.”    

 

Infront’s President and CEO, Philippe Blatter, added: “We are very happy that our proposal to the Lega Calcio has been fully accepted by all delegates of the League’s Assembly. This appointment is a major expansion of the Infront Group’s current business portfolio and we will combine all our comprehensive media and consulting capabilities to meet this exciting challenge.”    

 

About Infront Sports & Media

Infront Sports & Media, based in Zug, Switzerland, is an experienced international full service sports marketing company with a capacity for innovation that is helping to transform the industry. These innovations have enhanced every area of sports marketing, including distribution of rights, host broadcast, programme production, event operations, brand development, sponsorship and even online entertainment. Infront has 400 employees across 24 offices in 11 countries.

 

A renowned player in football

Infront successfully delivered the global media rights sales and host broadcast of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup™. The group’s extensive football portfolio also includes partnerships with several European national football associations (incl. the DFB in Germany) and top clubs like SV Werder Bremen, FC Schalke 04, U.S. Città di Palermo, S.S. Lazio Rome and AC Sparta Prague. Infront is also involved in the distribution of the Asian media rights to the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup™ (in a joint venture with Dentsu). The company’s dedicated and highly specialised host broadcast organisation Host Broadcast Services (HBS), will handle the host broadcast of the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup™ and for the first division of the French Football League (Ligue 1) up until 2011/2012.      

 

For further information, please contact:  

Jörg Polzer

Manager, Communication & PR

Infront Sports & Media AG

Tel. +41-41-723 15 15

Fax +41-41-723 15 16

press infrontsports.com

www.infrontsports.com 

 

 

Please find below a German language PDF version of this release for download - Eine deutsche Fassung der Pressemitteilung finden Sie nachfolgend als PDF-Download: