Africa-Press – Uganda. The just-concluded international break in football was like no other in recent times. It was the time to separate the chaff from the grain as the batch of nations to qualify for the 2022 Qatar Fifa World Cup were decided in Africa and Europe.
However, to the dismay of Ugandan and most of the African fans below the Sahara, the Europe play-off final that pitted Portugal against a little-ranked North Macedonia was widely available on their televisions and radio commentaries while the highly-billed matches involving African champions Senegal and Mohammed Salah’s Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria, Cameroon and Algeria, Dr Congo and Morocco and Mali versus Tunisia were not easily accessible.
Genesis
Previously, that set of fans enjoyed watching continental games through South African based giant TV producer Supersport that operates mainly in the sub-Saharan region.
SuperSport, according to insideworldfootball website, suspended the broadcast of Caf games after the African football body prematurely terminated a ten-year contract with French agency for the marketing and media rights, Largadere Sports.
The Ahmad Ahmad-led Caf failed to get alternatives to air the games and situation turned from bad to worse when Fifa took over the running of the body citing incompetency. Among the first major reforms was to centralise the media rights for the Fifa World Cup. Previously, host nations owned the rights and would sell to their best bidders.
Fifa went on to convince the African nations to hand them the rights promising better revenues.
In August 2019, Fifa made the countries sign a document that took away the mandate for the African qualifiers of the World Cup 2022 and 2026 qualifiers.
Tender process
On November 18, 2019, Fifa confirmed that all the 54 African countries signed the agreement as they opened an invitation to tender (“ITT”) for the centralised media rights to all the second round (group games) and the third-round play-offs matches.
“Following an agreement with all 54 member associations of CAF in August, the media rights to all African qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 are being managed under a centralised sales model by Fifa.
The media rights will cover TV, internet, mobile and radio transmissions,” Fifa announced. Uganda’s Fufa was quoted in the media denying that they signed the agreement.
“East Africa’s rights were bought by Azam in an omnibus form; Pay TV, Online, and Free-To-Air (FTA),” a person knowledgeable and involved in the processes revealed to Score before explaining: “That meant no one else could get them without going through Azam.
“And the demands by Azam that the signal is carried only on pure Free-To-Air carriers and that the signal be dropped from pay-Tv platforms like StarTimes, DSTV, GoTV, Zuku, etc meant it was not viable to keep it going.”
This explains the back and forth tussle between Fufa and Azam Television during Uganda’s home games against Mali, Kenya and Rwanda.
The irony
“The promise of more money is ironical because the national teams are funded by their governments which is taxpayers’ money but the same citizens who pay those taxes cannot watch their teams on their national broadcasters because Fifa have out-priced the rights,” Francis Gaitho, an expert in matters African football weighs in.
Supersports got the rights for the Nigeria-Ghana West African derby but had territorial restrictions to broadcast in only those two countries. Azam aired the games in most East African countries including Uganda where they operate.
“It is a shameful and unacceptable situation and those responsible for African football governance and handing over their media rights, as national federations, to FIFA, should answer to their publics,” former BBC journalist Osasu Obayiuwana from Nigeria adds.
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