Israeli broadcasters missed out on covering the national team match with France

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Israeli broadcasters have a reputation for agreeing last minute deals but broadcasters failed to buy the creditable Worl Cup qualification 0-0 draw with France on 4 September. This was the first time an Israel international game was not shown, while even those that had access to satellite channels couldn't see the game since Pay-TV broadcaster TV5 deliberately blocked the coverage to avoid a legal dispute with the rights owners. The qualification games are listed events, means that only free-to-air channels can buy the rights. SportFive, the leading football rights agency which has been selling the rights on behalf of the France Football Federation has negotiated with the three Israeli channels, public Channel 1 and the commercial broadcasters channel 2 and channel 10. SportFive was demanding US$0.25m for the game in Paris, or alternatively US$0.875m for all the five Israeli qualification away matches, an average of US$0.175 per match, a good price at least for the France game, if not for all the others. However, Channel 10 which recently bought the home games of the team for US$0.7m did not bid, while Channel 2 offered US$0.175m and refused the five match deal. Most of criticism was aimed to channel 1 which came close to buy the rights only hours before kick-off time. The channel executives agreed a deal with SportFive for US$0.225m but failed to get approval at the top level. "It is deeply regrettable that the match could not be seen by Israeli fans. We did all we could to try and resolve the dispute but we are not a party in this matter," Israel Football Association chairman Itche Menahem commented to media.