Yousef Al-Obaidly

Al-Obaidly was born in Doha, Qatar, where he spent his formative years, before studying in the US and graduating from Seattle University.[4]

After leaving university, Al-Obaidly played professional tennis and represented Qatar in the Davis Cup.[5]

In 2003, Al-Obaidly played a role in the launch of Al Jazeera Sport, which would later transform into beIN Sports.[2]

In 2012 he was the responsible for the roll-out of beIN Sports in France and other territories including the Americas and Asia-Pacific.[6]

He was promoted to the position of chief executive in 2018[7] and since his appointment as CEO, Al-Obaidly has been involved in media rights acquisitions for the FIFA Women's World Cup,[8] FIFA Club World Cup,[9] UEFA Euro 2020[10] and UEFA Champions League[11] Al-Obaidly has however warned that media rights bubble is about to burst.[12] Al-Obaidly has also spearheaded distribution and sub-licensing deals with Canal+,[13] co-production deals with the BBC,[14] and hired football figures such as Jose Mourinho[15] and Arsene Wenger[16]to perform punditry for beIN. Al-Obaidly is also the CEO of Digiturk, the leading pay-TV operator in Turkey.[17]

Al-Obaidly is a prominent figure in the fight against piracy and the protection of media rights.[2] He has been particularly vocal about the threat posed by Saudi Arabia-backed piracy operation BeoutQ.[18] and has called for "Saudi Arabia to follow the most basic international norm – that is to uphold the rule of law."[19]

During his keynote speech at the 2019 Leaders Week Sports Business Summit in London, he warned that football was in significant financial danger due to piracy[20]

In an interview with The Telegraph in 2019, Al-Obaidly described beoutQ's ongoing piracy as "…without doubt – one of the largest and most damaging heists in corporate history."[21] He has specifically warned that piracy threatens Britain's thriving creative industries.[22]

In April 2020, Al-Obaidly wrote to English Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters and the chairs of all 20 Premier League clubs to protest against the takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi-Arabian backed consortium. In the letter he again offered a warning about football finances and accused the Saudi Arabian government of the "facilitation of the near three-year theft of the Premier League's commercial rights - and in turn your club's commercial revenues - through its backing of the huge-scale beoutQ pirate service".[23][24]

In 2019, a leaked report in Le Monde suggested that Al-Obaidly was under judicial investigation in France.[25] However, it was later clarified that Al-Obaidly voluntarily attended an appointed meeting as part of a preliminary investigation[26] and that "the allegations are completely and categorically denied and will be vehemently challenged using the full force of the law".[27]

Al-Obaidly holds a number of board positions including at Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, Paris Saint-Germain Handball, Qatar Sports Investments, Qatar Tennis Federation and Qatar Satellite Company Es'hailSat.[2]

In March 2020 he joined the board of Qatar based telecoms company Ooredoo.[28]