The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) released a statement confirming the agreement validity with Facebook to exclusively broadcast Libertadores Cup’s matches played on Thursdays until 2022. According to Paraguayan newspaper ‘Última Hora’ website, meeting will be held at Conmebol’s headquarters with representatives of Facebook, Fox Sports and Globo, so that both channels could broadcast the Thursday’s matches of the competition.

‘Facebook, the largest social network in the world, has the exclusive rights to broadcast Thursday’s Conmebol Libertadores matches until 2022,’ said the statement issued by the entity during the last Friday’s minutes, and added: ‘We are happy to collaborate with Facebook to reach the largest number of fans, working together to find opportunities that makes this transition towards a new way of living football in the digital era easier’.

From Facebook they have also pronounced themselves on the information released on Friday, and said they were ‘happy to collaborate with Conmebol, which has allowed millions of fans in the region to enjoy matches for free through Facebook Watch. And, although changes can generate some resistance, we are encouraged not only by the number of people watching the Libertadores Cup on Facebook Watch, but also by the way fans use our platform to interact and participate in the broadcasts’.

The social network had announced that in 2019 it would have the rights to broadcast 46 Libertadores Cup’s matches, which would be watched on the official Facebook Watch website. Of those 46, 27 (matches played on Thursdays) would be exclusively to Facebook, and the remaining 19 would be broadcast simultaneously on Fox Sports.