Asian football announces new broadcast partner

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP):

Asian football's governing body announced its new broadcast rights partner yesterday, three days after terminating a previous exclusive deal five years early.

The Asia Football Group is now the exclusive rights holder through 2028. The Asian Football Confederation gave no details about investors or executive managers.

"Asia Football Group was established exclusively to provide bespoke services to the AFC and its commercial partners, with a network of offices in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore," the football body said, adding its new partner is "Dubai-registered."

A previous company called " Asia Football Group " is listed on business directories as being created in Singapore in 2004 to provide football youth training programmes.

The AFC, last week, terminated its 10-year deal with Football Marketing Asia, a partnership between agencies in China and Switzerland. FMA also has offices in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The new deal takes immediate effect, the same day the group stage of the Asian Champions League starts. Karim Benzema and Neymar are set to make their debuts in the competition today for their Saudi Arabian clubs.

"AFG is an integrated sports marketing agency highly experienced in delivering the full spectrum of services and achieving various business outputs, reinforcing the assurance of a smooth transition from the AFC's previous commercial partners," the Asian football body said.