JBTC to air Korea’s World Cup qualifiers

Rebecca Hawkes ©RapidTVNews | 10-06-2012


South Korea's JBTC is broadcasting the opening two football matches in the final round of qualifications for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, following an agreement with marketing and events company World Sport Group.

The home game against Lebanon will be shown on 12 June, in addition to the match played on 8 June in Qatar, which ended in a 1-4 victory for South Korea.

World Sport Group finalised the deal with JBTC after what it called "lengthy negotiations with a Korean TV pool – including KBS, MBC and SBS – ended". The Singapore-based marketing partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said "the consortium was unprepared to even match the figure paid by the market for the rights to the final round of FIFA World Cup qualifying four years ago."

The statement continued: "While World Sport Group sincerely regrets the failure to agree a deal with the Korean TV consortium, the company is duty-bound to work in the commercial interests of all 46 member associations of the AFC and was therefore unable to accept the terms on offer."

During this campaign the Korean Republic aims to qualify for an eighth consecutive FIFA World Cup finals and ninth in total – a record for an Asian national football team.