THE Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) club competitions might be back on our TV screens as the continental football body has advertised tender applications for the Sub-Sahara media rights for all major competitions until 2023.
Caf, under president Patrice Motsepe, has been trying to solve the impasse in this matter which was left by Motsepe’s predecessor, Ahmad Ahmad.
Caf scrapped a $1 billion (about R147 billion) television and marketing rights deal with Lagardere Sports in November 2019, in the wake of separate judgments that it breached competition rules.
However, the French-based company called Caf’s move “unlawful, unreasonable and unjustified” and said they would defend their agreement with Caf, which runs from 2017 to 2028.
They suggested they could accept changes to the terms of the deal, but if all else fails it would seek compensation in cash.
Indications are that the long standing matter has been resolved, which was one of the priorities of Motsepe’s manifesto when he assumed the Caf presidency in March. In a statement, Caf confirmed opening invitations to tender (ITT) for the media rights in the Sub-Saharan Africa region on a pay/pay-per-view basis to a large number of Caf events in 2022 and 2023, including its flagship event, the Caf African Cup of Nations (Afcon) Cameroon 2021.
“The Caf Afcon Cameroon 2021 is scheduled for 9 January 2022 until 6 February 2022, a total of 52 matches will be played,” said Caf in the statement.
“The media rights available are on a pay/pay-per-view basis across the Sub-Saharan region including South Africa.”
The winning of the broadcast rights will be offered to events such as the Afcon Cameroon 2021, African Nations Championship 2022 (Chan), Africa Women Cup of Nations 2022, Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations 2022, Africa U-17 Cup of Nations 2023, Africa U-20 Cup of Nations 2023, Caf Champions League 2021-22, Caf Champions League 2022-23, Caf Confederation Cup 2021-22, Caf Confederation Cup 2022-23, Caf Super Cup 2022, Caf Super Cup 2023, and Caf Women’s Champions League 2022. The deadline is 2 November.
When Caf cancelled this deal with Lagardere Sports it meant Mzansi pay TV station, SuperSport were unable to show any of the Caf competitions and have reportedly lost about $200m (about R1.9b).