VietNamNet Bridge – AVG company has expressed its wish to exclusively hold the broadcast right of many sport events in Vietnam for 20 years. The firm’s proposal has provoked controversies about its legal aspects.

AVG has several times asked over 20 sport federations in Vietnam to sell the commercial right of their tournaments to AVG for 20 years. Among these tournaments are major events in Vietnam such as the V-League, the national track-and-field championship, the national volleyball championships, etc.

The General Department of Sports and Physical Training encouraged sport federations to sell the broadcast right of their events to have more capital to develop sports. However, some federations hesitated to answer or refused AVG’s proposal because they were afraid of making difficulties for their successors since the contract duration with AVG is 20 years while federation officials only work for five-year terms.

They also wondered about the legal aspects of the contract. Some questions were raised during meetings between sport federations and AVG: the broadcast right of sport events belongs to sport federations, the event organizers, sport clubs or all of them? Five-year term steering boards of sport federations have the right to sign contracts with duration longer than their term?

According to the current Law on Sports and Physical Training, national sport federations or associations have the right to sell the broadcast right of sport events organized by themselves, without restriction of contract duration.

It is a fact that many international sports federations sign copyright transfer contracts with long duration, without caring of the term of their executive boards. For example, the Asian Football Federation (AFC) signed an exclusive contract with the World Sport Group from 1993 to 2020.

Experts said that Vietnam’s sports federations should put aside their worries about term to make right decisions to benefit their federations.

PV