Nigeria Rejects CAF’s Broadcast Deal

Nigeria have rejected Confederation of Africa Football CAF’s Centralised Marketing Rights deal which hands over the broadcast, media and marketing rights for all African Nations Cup qualifying games to CAF partners Sport5 and their affiliates. 

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Aminu Maigari last week wrote to CAF explaining that the NFF had existing contractual obligations with broadcasters SuperSport and AIT and ‘as a responsible organisation, do not want to infringe on those rights’.

Last month’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Ethiopia ran into hitches and was finally carried by national broadcaster NTA when the issues could not be resolved.

Egypt, South Africa, Ivory Coast and Morocco are some of the countries also involved in a similar quandary as Nigeria, and all have previously written to CAF outlining their objections to the proposed arrangement.

A CAF source however said Nigeria and the other countries had themselves to blame for the present situation.

“CAF had written letters to them in the past informing them of this arrangement, and none wrote back to us to point out their contractual obligations.

“They are only doing that now after the decision has been taken, and being implemented.”

Under the proposed arrangement, all qualifying games for the African Nations Cup are the property of CAF, and the broadcast rights for the games have been bundled under the CMR and sold to Sport5.

National associations would then be paid equitably out of a central pot.

The decision has left CAF’s Big 8 countries upset, as it takes away a major revenue stream from the associations.

As one Nigerian official put it: “It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. You take away a major source of income from the big associations without compensation, and then you share the money with others who cannot generate enough money.

“We spend a lot of money organising those games, and then they want to come in and just take it for free.”

No word was however said on what the continental governing body would do about the countries which reject its arrangement.