Kingdom Come: Alamiya Media on Bringing the Supercoppa Italiana and Supercopa de Espaa to Saudi Arabia

Kingdom come: Alamiya Media on bringing the Supercoppa Italiana and Supercopa de Espa a to Saudi Arabia By Adrian Pennington

Friday, January 31, 2025 - 09:12

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Among the many international sports events staged in Saudi Arabia, the annual Italian and Spanish Super Cups played out over successive weeks in January.

What was a single match between the league champion and domestic cup winner in each country was reformatted in 2023 so that each competition now features the top four teams from the previous season's domestic tournaments.

In return, Saudi Arabia is paying 138 million for the Supercoppa Italiana from 2023 to 2029 and it's paying the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) around 40 million for each Supercopa de Espa a tournament until 2029.

Venue cities tend to rotate between Jeddah and Riyadh, but the common denominator is local production services supplier Alamiya Media.

Since Telef nica holds the rights in Spain to the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, the telco contracts Alamiya as service supplier in a continuation of an arrangement that began in 2022.

Telef nica flies in key personnel, including a technical producer, director, vision mixer and VT coordinator, but the rest of the team is staffed by Alamiya crew who regularly work on the Saudi Pro League (SPL).

Arrangements for the Supercoppa Italiana (technically the EA Sports FC Supercup) differs slightly in that Lega Serie A, which organises Italy's domestic cup competitions, contracts Alamiya Media directly to produce the games while also providing an editorial layer.

Spanish Super Cup

The two Copa del Rey finalists and top two finishers in LaLiga competed for the 2025 Spanish Super Cup, with matches starting on 8 January. Real Madrid and Barcelona duly beat Mallorca and Athletic Bilbao to set up El Cl sico on 12 January in front of nearly 60,000 spectators at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

Despite Real Madrid opening the scoring through Mbappe, Barca saw off their rivals 5-2 thanks to wunderkind Lamine Yamal and a brace from Raphinha.

All three matches were played in Jeddah, which is naturally a benefit in terms of not having to change logistics between games.

They were each covered with a 29-camera plan, including Sony 3500 super slow motion and 6500 Ultra slow-motion cameras in HD 1080i/50. A notable camera addition this year was a FPV drone that flew inside the stadium, not just for pre- and post-match activities and celebrations but also flying over spectators during the game itself.

Production and transmission format depends on the rights holder, says Miguel Caso, chief broadcast officer for Riyadh-based Alamiya Media. All of our larger trucks are UHD ready.

All production is performed on site except occasionally for graphics. This would usually be for international or English language graphics. We always have a backup on site to do graphics but whether remote or on-prem the leagues prefer to handle graphics themselves, bringing in their own operator. They know the graphics package and workflow better and sometimes they bring their own hardware.

Italian Super Cup

The first semi-final of the Supercup, played at Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh on 2 January, was between Inter (winners of the 2023/2024 Serie A championship) and Atalanta (finalists of the 2023/2024 Coppa Italia). The team coached by Simone Inzaghi won 2-0 against Atalanta, earning a place in the final.

On 3 January, Juventus (winners of the 2023/2024 Coppa Italia) and AC Milan (second-place finishers in the 2023/2024 Serie A) engaged in a thrilling match, which ended in a 2-1 victory for Milan. The Milan derby final on 6 January was won 3-2 by AC Milan with a Tammy Abraham winner in stoppage time.

The broadcast model is almost identical to the Spanish Super Cup although Caso describes the Italian setup as creatively more aggressive .

This year included the first use of an AGITO modular dolly system which roamed along one of the touchlines during the final. The buggy carried a stabilised Shotover head and wireless Sony HDC-P50 camera with Canon CN10 lens.

This was a proof of concept and provided some really nice shots during the match, like a Steadicam, but under remote control, he says.

We also used a Sony Venice positioned on a Jimmy Jib behind the goal fitted with a PL lens for nice replays with that cinematic touch.

Camera ops with gimbals carrying Sony A7s with PL lenses offered shots of players in the tunnel and during the match for crowd reactions.

Both competitions used drones, one operating outside the stadium offering beauty shots and fireworks at the final, as well as an FPV in the stadium.

Both camera plans are very similar but I would say that the Italian one was maybe a little bit more aggressive with new technologies and tweaked for the Italian taste, Caso says.

Read more: Alamiya Media at 50: Preparing for rapid change, an international broadcast centre and the FIFA World Cup

The Italian production wears innovation on its sleeve to the extent that a special graphic was displayed on screen to introduce a new technology or camera angle during coverage.

The FPV drone was briefed to fly around the grandstands during the game but during the second semi-final, after a goal, the operator (or director) disregarded this and had it enter the field of play to fly in on top and over of the players as they were gathering to celebrate.

We felt that was maybe too much, it was provocative, and we made sure not to repeat it for the final but it was a very nice shot indeed, Caso says

Alamiya has previously innovated with drones including during the much-hyped Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo clash in February 2024 when Inter Miami played Al-Nassr. Messi spent most of the game on the bench and his team lost 6-0.

Because that was a pre-season friendly we had more

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