RIYADH 19 June 2018: The Saudi Football Federation has filed a formal complaint with the International Federation of Football (Fifa) over the exploitation by Qatar’s “bein sports” network (formerly Aljazeera) of owning rights to the 2018 World Cup finals in the Middle East to broadcast political messages aimed at insulting Saudi Arabia and its leaders in the framework of incitement and spreading hatred among fans and peoples in the region and as an extension of the excesses of this network and continuing to employ them for political purposes far from sports.
In the complaint sent to Fifa, the Saudi Football Federation pointed to the rejected political media abuse by the channel after the match between Saudi Arabia and Russian in the opening of the World Cup by its analysts and presenters which is a continuation of many abuses repeated on previous occasions and international participations that are contrary to the laws of the International Federation, which stresses that the exclusion of sport from politics, according to the Saudi Press Agency quoted by Wam.
The Saudi Federation called on the International Federation in its complaint to take the necessary and severe sanctions against the Qatari channel to protect the system, and to avoid the exploitation of sport in the goals of political bias distorting the game and interfere in its morals, including interference and withdrawal of exclusive rights granted to the channel in the World Cup or other World Cup competitions to protect the game from distortion.