World Cup on Sportsnet!

Soccer World Cup coming to Sportsnet

The greatest sporting event in the world is coming to Rogers Sportsnet.

Sportsnet.ca -- Infront Sports & Media has signed an exclusive agreement with Rogers Sportsnet, the Canadian broadcaster, for the Canadian broadcast rights to all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Germany.

This agreement includes rights to broadcast in the following six languages - English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Sportsnet, a dedicated sports broadcaster, has built a strong reputation as a soccer broadcaster in Canada, televising live English Premier League football, Spanish Primera Liga soccer and matches of both the Canadian men's and women's national teams. Sportsnet also produces Soccercentral, a football magazine show that airs twice a week.

"We are delighted to acquire the rights to such a premier world event as the FIFA World Cup," says Doug Beeforth, President of Rogers Sportsnet. "This agreement takes our network to another level and that's exciting."

A second agreement between Infront and Sportsnet covers a package of additional FIFA events including:

• Futsal World Championship 2004
• FIFA World Youth Championship 2005
• FIFA U-17 World Championship 2005
• FIFA Confederations Cup 2005
• FIFA U-19 Women's World Championships 2004 and 2006
• Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cups 2005 and 2006
• 2004, 2005 and 2006 FIFA World Player Galas

"Sportsnet has shown its commitment to soccer, in particular its popular broadcasts of the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, so Infront is delighted that it will be showing all 64 matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup live and delayed and providing Canadians with the opportunity to also experience many other international FIFA Events" said Oliver Seibert, an Executive Director of Infront.