Friday’s announcement by CAF that it had terminated its $1 billion (R14.8 billion) television and marketing rights deal with French company Lagardère Sports has had a ripple effect.
SuperSport has confirmed that the pay-TV channel will not be broadcasting CAF content, starting with the Under-23 Afcon tournament that got under way in Egypt on Friday, until further notice.
“This also extends to the 2021 Afcon qualifiers, which resume on Wednesday,” said MultiChoice’s group executive for corporate affairs, Joe Heshu.
“We are in a difficult position. We cannot broadcast the CAF games when we don’t have a firm contractual arrangement in place. SuperSport had previously acquired these broadcast rights from Lagardère.”
This means local subscribers will miss out on Bafana Bafana’s opening qualifier against Ghana at the Cape Coast Stadium on Thursday, as well as the game against Sudan at Orlando Stadium next Sunday.
But Safa’s outgoing acting chief executive, Russell Paul, told City Press yesterday that the federation did not have terrestrial rights for Bafana games.
“Those rights reside with the host federation – in this case, the Ghana Football Association. However, I can confirm that the game against Sudan will air live on SABC1,” said Paul.
Safa and the SABC concluded a broadcast deal last month. The four-year agreement will cover six Bafana matches a year – three home Afcon qualifiers, two international friendlies and the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
It remains to be seen how long the SuperSport CAF football blackout will last, considering that South Africans are also keen on following Mamelodi Sundowns, who will resume their Champions League group-stage campaign later this month.
Calling the move by CAF “unjustified”, Lagardère warned that it would defend its agreement with the confederation, which started in 2017 and was set to expire in 2028.
CAF said on Friday that it had no choice but to terminate the deal after two court judgments – in 2017 and last year – ruled against it. In the latter case, said CAF, a Cairo court had found that it had breached “Egyptian competition rules because Lagardère was appointed as CAF’s exclusive agent for marketing and media rights for an uninterrupted 20-year period without any open tender”.