African football paid out $50m settlement over marketing rights

22 October 2024 - 13:21 By Mark Gleeson
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Conferderation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe during the 2024 46th Caf ordinary general assembly press conference at SkyTrain Hall in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia on Tuesday.
Conferderation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe during the 2024 46th Caf ordinary general assembly press conference at SkyTrain Hall in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia on Tuesday.
Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

African football paid $50m (R878.5m) in an out-of-court settlement to former marketing company Lagardere Sports after abruptly cancelling their long-term agreement, the Confederation of African Football's (Caf) congress was told on Tuesday.

The French company had sued for compensation after their 10-year, $1bn (R17.56bn) agreement was abruptly cancelled in 2019.

Lagardere Sports held the marketing, sponsorship and TV rights to all Caf competitions for two decades but the ruling organisation said it had to cancel the deal after two court rulings found the agreement was made without proper tender.

The company, now known as Lagardere Unlimited, sued for compensation before accepting a settlement, with Caf paying in two equal tranches, the last of which was paid at the end of last year, the body's finance committee vice-chair Andrew Kamanga said.

Caf president Patrice Motsepe told the congress the organisation had made a $72m (R1.26bn) profit from this year's Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast, significantly increased from a $4m (R70.32m) profit for the 2021 finals in Cameroon.

Caf said it projected a revenue of almost $150m (R2.63bn) for the 2024-2025 financial year, with expenses of $138.2m (R2.43bn).

Caf 46th Ordinary General Assembly media press conference.

About 30% of the budget would be spent on development programmes and contributions to Caf’s 54-member associations.

A proposal was approved to give each association president an annual salary of $50,000 (R879,344) from the $400,000 (R7m) annual contribution.

Motsepe, expected to stand for re-election next year, said Caf wanted to increase African football's revenue to $1bn (R17.56bn) over the next eight years.

“We are having a lot of discussions with potential sponsors,” he told the congress in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

He said Caf wanted to give $1m (R17.58m) annually to each member association from 2026.

Motsepe also said Caf was reviewing rules on the treatment of visiting teams in the wake of Nigeria's national team being held at a Libyan airport for a half day before last week's scheduled Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

Nigeria refused to play the game afterwards, saying they had been held hostage by Libyan authorities who diverted their charter plane to an unused airfield and then left them waiting.

“National teams must be treated with respect. If there are violations, we'll take action,” said Motsepe. 

Reuters


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