The World Cup qualifier between Belarus and Spain in Minsk on Friday is in danger of not being shown live on television.
If no broadcaster comes up with the €1.5m being asked for to screen the game within the next 48 hours then it will not be shown in Spain, reports AS.
The economic crisis has hit Spanish TV channels hard and, having cited a ‘lack of profitability’ as the main reason for not snapping up the broadcasting rights, at the moment there are no takers wanting to screen the match.
German company Sportfive owns the rights and began by asking for €3m, yet even though the tender is now half that price no channel has been willing to buy those rights.
AS consulted several TV channels and the answer from most of them was that ‘the price is just not profitable’.
It is not a new situation for the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), having been faced with a similar situation for the game against Georgia before Mediaset finally bought the rights.
This time around the game is being organised by the Belarus Federation but next Tuesday’s game against France in the Vicente Calderon will be shown on TVE1, with the RFEF having previously announced that ‘TVE has priority over Spain matches’.
