NEW YORK - Following Wednesday's announcement that FIFA has awarded the English-language television rights to the Men's and Women's World Cup through 2014 to ABC and ESPN and the Spanish-language rights to Univision, Major League Soccer Commissioner and Soccer United Marketing (SUM) CEO Don Garber issued the following statement:
(NOTE: SUM holds the English-language television rights to the 2006 FIFA World Cup as part of the FIFA television package acquired in 2001 which included the 2002 Men's World Cup and 2003 Women's World Cup.)
"Major League Soccer and SUM congratulate ABC, ESPN and the Univision network on securing the broadcast rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. It was yet another significant step forward for the sport of soccer in the United States that five major U.S. networks were involved in making bids for English and Spanish-language World Cup television rights that increased exponentially in value since SUM acquired them in 2001. These recent developments further solidify soccer's standing and value as a major television property in the United States with even greater future potential.
"Given the strong interest displayed by several of the major English and Spanish-language networks and the belief that it was greatly beneficial to the value of soccer programming in this country, SUM opted to work in close partnership with ABC, ESPN and Univision throughout the FIFA bidding process.
"MLS and SUM now look forward to continuing our very positive discussions toward extending our longstanding relationship with ABC and ESPN and once again becoming part of the Univision family. These new television partnerships will provide Major League Soccer and the U.S. Soccer Federation with the most important broadcast agreement in the sport's history in America. In the immediate and long-term future, today's news will prove to be a historical turning point for the sport."
