Football Federation Australia may have missed a million-dollar free kick after failing to cash in on the broadcast rights for the Arsenal tour in Sydney.

Next week's games against Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers at ANZ Stadium will be televised live and nationally on SBS, but the FFA won't receive a cent from the broadcast rights for the highly anticipated Gunners' tour, which it initially held.

On fire: Arsenal players celebrate their FA Cup victory over Chelsea in May. Credit:Laurence Griffiths

On Tuesday, SBS was announced as the broadcast partner of the two games that are set to attract a combined attendance of 160,000 spectators, however the deal was done with the promoter of the event, Venues Live, rather than the FFA.

Fairfax Media can reveal the FFA made the unprecedented step of returning its mandate to sell the television rights back to the promoter. In sanctioning high-profile friendlies, the FFA receives a fee of about $250,000 as well as picking up the broadcast rights for free but could not sell the broadcast rights for Arsenal's games to a major Australian network.