UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, has begun the tender process for media rights to its top-tier club competitions during the 2024-27 cycle in a host of Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets.

In total, the Swiss body has kicked off nine separate tenders covering rights to the top-tier UEFA Champions League (UCL), second-tier Europa League, and third-tier Europa Conference League, between 2024-25 and 2026-27. These processes cover Hong Kong, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Macau, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos.

The sales are being handled by Team Marketing, UEFA’s partner agency for media and commercial rights sales across its club competitions. All inquiries should be directed to info@team.ch, with a deadline for submissions of March 18.

Vietnam was the first APAC market in which UEFA sent these rights on sale, in November last year.

Currently, covering the ongoing 2021-24 UEFA club competitions cycle, heavyweight pay-TV broadcaster BeIN Sports holds rights to UCL action in Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, Emtek covers action in Indonesia, Tap TV does the same in the Philippines, while Eclat’s SpoTV holds rights in South Korea.

Currently, South Korea’s Lee Kang-in and Kim Min-jae are the most prominent players from that region competing in the UCL, for French heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain and German giants Bayern Munich, respectively.

UEFA’s most recent tender process for club competition media rights was launched in late January, covering rights in Poland, while rights have also gone on sale over the last few weeks in Romania, as well as in-ship and in-flight.

In terms of deals struck, last month saw DAZN Canada retain exclusive rights in that market to all UEFA club competitions for the next three campaigns, while Turkish public-service broadcaster TRT also struck a coverage deal.

The DAZN tie-up marks the third consecutive cycle in which that service has partnered with UEFA to broadcast the competitions in Canada since taking over as exclusive rightsholder from Canadian pay-television broadcaster TSN in May 2018.

From the 2024-25 season, the UCL will take on a new single-league format, with the competition expanding from 32 to 36 teams, and incorporating 189 matches instead of the current 125.

So far, 19 non-European media rights tender processes for the 2024-27 cycle have been sent live by UEFA.