On March 13, Egyptian Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek referred to the Economic Court the then-Chairman of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Issa Hayatou on accusations of improperly selling the rights to broadcast the African Union (AU) championships, thus allegedly violating the Egyptian Law on the Protection of Competition and the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices.
This resulted in further tensions between the African and Egyptian federations and to the March 16 CAF election defeat of Hayatou, a Cameroonian who headed the organization for 29 years, by Ahmad Ahmad, who heads Madagascar’s Football Association.
Sadek’s decision came after the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) in January had referred Hayatou to the public prosecutor for the same reason.
Signs of a crisis started appearing after the CAF formally renewed a contract with the French Lagardere company in September, giving Lagardere the right to broadcast the CAF championships until 2028 and ignoring an offer made by an Egyptian company, Presentation Sports.
Presentation Sports CEO Amr Wahby told Al-Monitor that his company filed a complaint with Egyptian authorities to protest the CAF’s move.
Wahby said, “We made the CAF a formal offer worth $1.2 billion to buy the broadcast rights, which is $200 million more than Lagardere’s offer. But we were surprised to see that they opted for the French company without seeking any bids on the broadcast rights. We filed a complaint before the Egyptian Competition Authority, which referred the case to the public prosecutor.”
In response to Egypt’s public prosecutor's referring Hayatou to trial, the CAF indicated in a press statement March 12 that the Egyptian offer was submitted 15 months after the CAF had come to a preliminary agreement with Lagardere “and materially and substantially fell short of the financial, technical, execution and other requirements commonly expected and required for deals of this nature in the sports media industry.”
ECA Chair Mona el-Garf said that the CAF is supposed to answer to the Egyptian Law on the Protection of Competition and the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices since the soccer body is a nongovernmental organization operating on Egyptian soil, in Cairo, and enjoying economic activity. Article 2 of the agreement signed between the CAF and the Egyptian state says that the confederation shall be subject to Egyptian law unless its offices and services are granted immunity by relocation.
Garf told Al-Monitor that the ECA addressed the CAF regarding the broadcast rights before Presentation Sports and the Egyptian Radio and Television Union made an offer to buy those rights.
She said, “We wrote to the CAF in June 2016 before the contract with Lagardere ended, and we asked for there to be a discussion on how to sell the broadcast rights in a profitable and competitive way that would give Egyptian and African citizens their right to watch the competition. But nobody responded. On Sept. 28, 2016, they renewed [the contract] for Lagardere, which shows that no bidding process was opened to sell the rights.”
Garf added, “The fact that the public prosecution referred CAF officials to court confirms that we were right to lodge a complaint in the first place. The matter is in the hands of the judiciary now. The CAF violated Article 8 of the ECA law on the prohibition of monopolistic practices in Egypt.”
Lagardere head Hamada Chadi denied that it was improperly awarded the contract.
Sources from Presentation Sports told Al-Monitor that the CAF did not put the broadcast rights into an open bidding process and granted the French company those rights without even checking out the Egyptian company's offer.
Chadi told Al-Monitor while he was attending the CAF meeting in Ethiopia that Lagardere's deliberations with the CAF started a year and a half before the contracts were signed, with one or two meetings taking place per week to discuss the contract details. He said, “The Egyptian company’s offer was made only weeks before we signed the contract.”
Chadi said, “We offered $1 billion over a period of 11 years, but experience played to our benefit, too. The CAF wants to reflect the best image of its product and we have more experience in that domain.”
He added, “Accusing us of monopolizing the competition is inaccurate. We have contracts with 11 parties to broadcast competitions across the world.”
Chadi ruled out the possibility that the ratified contracts on broadcast rights would be changed after the appointment of a new CAF president, saying, “The contracts will remain intact, even if the management changes. These are official international agreements that took place in the presence of FIFA President Gianni Infantino.” FIFA is the international soccer body.
With the escalation of the crisis, FIFA posted March 15 on its official Facebook page that Hayatou was seeking to move the CAF headquarters from Egypt to Morocco. Meanwhile, preparations were underway for the CAF elections.
Although he was referred to court on March 13, this did not stop Hayatou from participating in the March 16 elections in Ethiopia in which he lost to Ahmad.
Seif Zaher, a member of the Egyptian Federation of Football (EFA), said in television statements March 17 that Hayatou threatened to move the CAF headquarters from Cairo for two reasons: first, because he was referred for trial, and second, because Egypt backed Ahmad for the CAF presidency during several meetings in Cairo.
Zaher said Egyptian officials made a deal with several soccer associations to support Hayatou’s adversary in the elections in order to remove Hayatou from his position.
He added in radio statements following Ahmad’s victory, “Presentation Sports and its President Mohamed Kamel played a big role in Ahmad’s journey as they welcomed him in Cairo to back him for the elections and he promised to cancel all of Hayatou’s previous contracts if he wins.”
After winning, Ahmad said during a TV interview that he owed his victory to Egypt’s strong support.
Mohammad Fadlallah, a legal expert and sports law professor at the American University in the United Arab Emirates, told Al-Monitor over the phone that the decision on moving the CAF headquarters would depend on factors obstructing its work such as the intervention of the hosting country’s government in the CAF’s work or that country’s failure to address its responsibilities. In such a case, the CAF calls for holding a general assembly, and the decision is taken with the approval of 75% of those attending.
On March 19, EFA head Hani Abu Rida said during a CNN interview that he had formed an alliance to remove Hayatou from his position. He said, “The Egyptian state played a big role in the CAF elections. Fifteen international African football clubs that are CAF members did a good job and we relied on them to make changes. The CAF members wanted Hayatou gone from the CAF and FIFA, and they succeeded.”