Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Stuns With Lucrative Commercial Rights Deal

The AFC had been locked in an “all rights” partnership with French headquartered agency Lagardere since 1993 (formerly World Sport Group prior to its acquisition), a relationship which the AFC had stated as “restrictive” as the commercial climate has evolved over the years. Nevertheless, Lagardere were pioneering commercial partners who raised the value and profile of AFC’s club and national competitions in Asia  during its tenure.

Now, the football body has been lured by the bid submitted by a new pretender DDMC Fortis, leaving the more established agency brands of Lagardere and MP&Silva out in the cold.

The new, 8-year deal – starting in 2021 – will cover commercial rights for all AFC national team and club competitions, beginning with the Asian Qualification competition for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The deal’s minimum guarantee is estimated to be around US$3.4b and the actual sales revenues could push the total figure over the $4b mark.

Who are DDMC Fortis I hear you say? Well, it’s a consortium – created specifically to bid for and manage the AFC rights – between the DDMC Sports International division of Chinese sports and entertainment company Wuhan DDMC Culture Co, and the Fortis Sports agency out of Switzerland. So new are they that they don’t have an obvious website yet.

But the agency has been busy, especially in China where it has bought La Liga broadcast rights from 2017 till 2022. It has also been acquisitive, paying US$500m to acquire Super Sports Media, which holds the Chinese rights for the English Premier League. Besides broadcast rights, DDMC subsidiary Desports has stakes in Spanish football club Granada and Italian Serie A side Parma, as well as Chinese Super League’s (CSL) Chongqing Lifan.

In other words, this agency has stealthily built up a strong, wide-ranging football portfolio and now, arguably, it has the biggest football feather of all in its cap.