Apple make Premier League choice while World Cup 2026 could have surprise venue
Apple has ruled itself out of bidding for the next Premier League rights.
That could be a blow for League bosses ahead of the next TV deal not to have one of the biggest global players come to the market.
Apple TV had been widely tipped to get involved when the next Premier League auction starts at the end of this year with Sky, TNT Sports and Amazon currently sharing the live rights.
Premier League bosses are expecting an increase on the current £5billion deal because they will offer more live matches and show 270 games each season but they also need more bidders to push the price up.
Apple will not be bidding for Premier League TV rights (PA)Apple’s senior vice president Eddy Cue said they would not enter the market unless it mirrored the MLS deal in which they have exclusive global rights.
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Cue said: “I don’t like the word exclusivity because that’s important but not as important. What’s important to us is global rights.
“We’re a global company, we have a large number of customers in every country in the world and it’s not exciting for me to have something that one person can have but another can’t.
“Another matter is that we’re throwing a significant amount of engineering and expertise into the MLS product and I can’t justify throwing what I think are the best engineers in the world on a small sub-set product.
“It has to be a partnership because our level of investment is significant. I never say never without knowing all of the information.
”But in general we never sign any deal with any league in a specific country or a small sub-sub countries and I’d say it was highly unlikely we’d ever do that. I don’t think we’d ever do that.”
2026 Final
The AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas could be chosen to host the 2026 World Cup final (Matthew Ashton/AMA)Dallas could be the surprise choice to host the 2026 World Cup final.
FIFA have yet to make a final decision from the potential venues in the United States who are co-hosts of the tournament with Canada and Mexico.
New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta are also pushing to host the showpiece match on July 19 but there is a growing feeling it could be the AT&T Stadium in Arlington which is also home to the Dallas Cowboys.
The stadium has an 80,000 capacity which is expandable to 105,000 and also has the extra bonus of having a retractable roof and state-of-the-art air conditioning.
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It means that the showpiece game could kick off in the afternoon US time which would have scorching temperatures but then be at peak evening time in Europe.
There have been several site visits with glowing reports about Dallas while New York has long since been seen as the obvious popular choice while Los Angeles must overcome several obstacles. FIFA are expected to announce the venue later this year.
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