FIFA has issued a warning to the Saudi satellite operator Arabsat to stop transmitting illegal feeds from the Women’s World Cup, which have been pirated by BeoutQ.
Football’s global governing body said it is ‘continuing to explore each of its legal options’ and is collaborating with rights holders to end unauthorised broadcasts of the tournament and some of its other media rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
FIFA said in a statement: “FIFA is aware that unauthorised transmissions of the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2019 are being made available across the MENA region, primarily Saudi Arabia, via the pirate broadcaster known as BeoutQ.
“BeoutQ’s unauthorised transmissions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 are made available by way of Arabsat satellite frequencies. FIFA is therefore seeking the cooperation of Arabsat in addressing the misuse of FIFA’s intellectual property.
“In addition, FIFA continues to explore each of its legal options as a means to address BeoutQ’s unauthorised broadcasts. In this regard, Fifa is working with a number of other rights holders whose rights have also been infringed by BeoutQ.”
In a reaction, Arabsat denies any wrongdoing: “An investigation carried out by seven independent satellite communications experts has found no evidence that satellite frequencies belonging to the Riyadh-based Arab Satellite Communications Organisation were used for illegal broadcasts of the World Cup by ‘BeoutQ’.”
“Arabsat has always been confident that our satellite network has not been used by beoutQ,” said Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat CEO, who also said FIFA should apologise for these accusations.
