Egyptian Competitions Authorities confirmed that CAF president Issa Hayatou will be referred to General Prosecutor for corruption charges which includes violations made by Hayatou in granting broadcasting rights for football championships.
Egyptian Competitions Authorities proved that Hayatou violated article (8) sections (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) from the Protection of Competition Act, as he abused his current position and gave broadcasting rights to Lagardere Sports alone without posing it to other companies in a natural framework that ensures the existence of free and fair competition.
The report says that Hayatou granted Lagardere the rights for 12 years starting from 2017 till the year 2028. CAF signed this agreement with Lagardere in June 2015, almost a year and half before the current rights agreement ended. It is worth mentioning that CAF granted Lagardere the same rights in 2008 and until 2016, which means that the company acquired broadcasting rights for 20 years. These broadcasting rights were not only limited to satellite broadcast but included webcasting too, and not only on the scope of Egypt and Africa, but throughout the whole world.
Egyptian Competitions Authorities asked CAF for quick measures according to article 20 of the Competition Act, which most importantly included the cancelation of the contract between him and Lagardere because of the outcomes this have on Egypt.
The authority also granted an exceptional right for BeIn media organization in addition to the other company that applied for the broadcasting grants to continue its live broadcasting for the 2017 AFCON which will start on January 14, because of the short time available to perform the needed procedures before the start of the championship and also to preserve the viewers rights to watch the championship through a competitive atmosphere that allows viewers to review best prices and grants them more freedom to choose, in addition to re-opening the broadcasting rights and other rights publicly on the official CAF website in advance and CAF will evaluate proposals that will be submitted according to an objective criteria in a way that ensures the protection of competition in these markets and to stop monopolies.
CAF will also have to change the way broadcasting rights for its championships are sold in Egypt, in a manner that divides it into bundles that ensures the creation of conditions that encourages competition in broadcasting championships.
Competitions Authority stressed out that CAF is subjected to the Protection of Competition Act and is obliged to apply it according to the second article of the agreement between the Egyptian government and CAF. The Competitions Authority assured that they will be contacting all concerned authorities in the country to ensure the implementations of its decisions and remove the serious damages that happened to the Egyptian economy as a result of his actions.
As for news circulating that CAF is intending to move its location from Egypt, the Competitions Authority commented that to be able to do so 75% of the members (54 countries) must vote in-favor during the general assembly according to article 1 of the CAF regulations.