On Wednesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic showed himself to be the chief strategist of state-owned Telekom Serbia, but also as someone who participated in the negotiations on the purchase of TV rights for the English Premier League (EPL) football matches on behalf of the company, the United Group said on Thursday, adding that in that case, they would address Vucic not as President of Serbia, but a competitor on the market.

“We ask Aleksandar Vucic to show the papers and prove his claims that the UG had ‘offered more money in the first round, but Telekom won in the second round,'” the Group said.

That way, the Group added, the people in Serbia would know whether President Vucic was lying when he said he had not participated in the negotiations and therefore did not know the exact numbers, or whether he had indeed taken part and knew all the details.

In either case, they said, “Aleksandar Vucic lied and deceived the people of Serbia.”

“The truth is that, in the first half of 2021, the United Group recorded the best business results since its founding. The company’s EBITDA is, in fact, twice as much as Telekom Serbia’s (consolidated). We have achieved growth of 300 percent in the last three years. We employ more than 14,300 people across eight countries, and their salaries are never late. We have always thought of others and extended a hand in difficult times – we donated millions of euros to the region, especially to Serbia. Still, the authorities censored all of that,” United Group said.

It is also true, the Group continued, that even such a successful United Group, a leader in telecommunications and media in Southeast Europe, could not offer more than €35 million per season of EPL broadcasting rights for the market of the former Yugoslavia. “That figure was too big, unrealistic, and conditioned by illegal competition between state and private capital, which is forbidden in the countries of the European Union.”

“Serbia signed that law, but is not implementing it. Unfortunately, as expected, Telekom and their ‘manager’ Vucic are violating numerous laws in Serbia on a daily basis,” the UG said. “United Group will of course appeal to all relevant institutions both in Serbia and the EU. We have the right to broadcast Premier League matches for another year on our Sport Klub channels.”

‘Nothing is final’

The Group also said that the Premier League “has its own internal rules of fair conduct, especially in the area of financing. We are convinced that nothing is final regarding the ELP TV rights.”

“We call on our competitor Vucic to document and prove his claims publicly, since he is famous for showing various documents and photographs on television. If he’s brave enough to look at the papers, let him explain to the people of Serbia whether it is true that the Telekom Serbia has paid for the rights to sports broadcasts several times the previous price:

• Italian football leagues were priced at €5 million a year earlier, while Telekom would pay €23 million a year under the new contract;
• The Spanish football league’s cost was €8.5 million per season, while Telekom will pay €14 million under the new contract;
• The French Football League’s TV broadcast rights amounted to €800,000 annually, while Telecom will now pay €6million per season;
• Broadcasting Champions League matches were priced at €18 million a year earlier, and under the new contract that will cost Telekom €45 million a year;
• Telekom is paying €8 million for the Serbian Football League, twice the price than before…”

“So, in many sports and different leagues, Telekom opted for a strategy of paying multiple times the previous price. This includes the EPL for which they offered ten times the amount previously paid by the United Group,” the company said.

They added that “Maybe Telekom Serbia’s ‘manager’ Aleksandar Vucic knows how 3.5 million Arena Sports viewers across the region will be able to afford all that because the price charged by the operator is below €2 per user. Did Vucic knowingly accept that Telekom would amass €150 million in losses annually in sports rights alone? Will the people of Serbia be the ones who pay the difference?”

N1 is a part of United Media which operates within the United Group.