MUMBAI: Football's governing body Fifa has launched a public tender process to select and appoint an agent to exploit its media rights in Asia.

The media rights include the television and radio rights to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, 2014 Fifa World Cup and other Fifa events to be staged between 2007 and 2014. The tender is open to all interested parties with the expertise to handle the rights.

The deadline for the submission of bids is 21 November 2005. Interested parties need to submit a bid to be appointed as Fifa's exclusive agent for the entire region defined in the tender document. If the successful bidder is a broadcaster, Fifa says that it is prepared to grant, in addition to the agency appointment, the right to exercise the media rights in those countries where the successful bidder itself undertakes full broadcast operations.

Fifa says that the tender process, which will be overseen by its Marketing & TV Division, is a reflection of its policy of transparency and its desire to give all interested parties the opportunity to submit bids in respect of the World Cup. It further says that on 2002, a cumulative audience of 28.8 billion people watched the World Cup in Korea/Japan.

For the next event in 2006, 30 billion people are expected to tune in over the four weeks of the biggest single sports event on earth, making the media rights some of the most attractive in sports. In India the 2006 World Cup will air on ESPN Star Sports. It may be recalled that in 2002 the World Cup had served as an effective launching pad for Ten Sports.