Despite its status as rights holder for the meeting between Young Boys Bern and RB Leipzig, beIN Sports was forced not to broadcast it because of a sponsor appearing on the Swiss club’s jersey.
During the first day of the European competition, Tuesday September 19, the Champions League match between the Swiss club Young Boys de Bern and the German club RB Leipzig was not broadcast by bein Sportsco-holder of the rights to the C1 with Canal+ And RMC Sport for the 2023-2024 season.
The other five Young Boys matches in the group stage will also not be broadcast, the fault of the sponsor present on the Swiss club’s jersey. The sponsor in question, Plus500, has been present on the Young Boys jersey since 2020. It is an online trading platform, whose site is accompanied by a banner which warns of a “high risk of rapid loss of capital“.
To justify the non-broadcast of the meeting, which ended with a victory for Leipzig (3-1), bein Sports explained on X (formerly Twitter): “Following a decision by the DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention), we must today renounce broadcasting the matches of Young Boys Bern in the UEFA Champions League. According to the DGCCR, any broadcast featuring one of the sponsors of this team would constitute prohibited advertising.”
“These advertisements are prohibited by the consumer code”observed the DGCCRF last January, when it banned bein Sports to broadcast the matches of Atalanta Bergamo in Serie A, a club also sponsored by Plus500, for the same reasons. Since then, the Italian club has changed partners and the Qatari channel has resumed broadcasting.
BeIN Sports forced by an injunction
In the case of Atalanta and Young Boys, bein Sports had no other choice but to comply because the channel is subject to an injunction, formulated after a complaint filed against it and M6 in 2018. The two channels then broadcast the Europa League final between Marseille and Atlético de Madrid, which also had Plus500 as a jersey sponsor.
In other words, if the Young Boys had fallen into the Paris Saint-Germain group, Canal+ Or RMC Sport – which broadcast the matches of the French champions – would not have had a broadcast ban. “Because the injunction does not concern them“, explained Florent Houzot, editorial director of bein Sports has West France.
Present in Group G, Young Boys will also have to face Red Star Belgrade and Manchester City. Subscribers to bein Sports will therefore not be able to attend the two matches of the reigning European champion against the Swiss club in this group stage.