By Staff Writers
March 13 – The final week of the African Football Confederation (CAF)’s Presidential election campaign is off to an explosive start, with CAF obliged to rebut what it says are unsubstantiated charges and allegations that have led to Issa Hayatou being referred to the Egyptian Economic Court within days of Thursday’s vote pitting him against challenger Ahmad Ahmad.
The timing of the Egyptian Court’s intervention is viewed by insiders as being an attempt to destabilise the Hayatou support in the election. Egypt has become a strong supporter of Ahmad and its football officials are suspected of using government support to further his campaign.
The allegations made by the Egyptian Economic Court relate to CAF’s renewal in June 2015 of the appointment of Lagardère Sports as marketing and media agency for the main regional football competitions in Africa for 12 years up to 2028 in what is reported to have been a $1 billion deal.
It was reported in January that CAF, which is headquartered in Egypt, was accused of failing to open up the tender to free and fair competition as required under Egyptian law – most notably excluding a newly formed Egyptian company called Presentation Advertising Agency which submitted a superior offer to the confederation at the time of the negotiations.
In a lengthy press release issued on Sunday, CAF says that the offer was submitted by Presentation in September 2016, 15 months after the signature of the contract with Lagardère. CAF further maintains that the Presentation offer “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.
“Most significantly and in addition to the previous points,” CAF goes on, “Presentation’s belated offer was to acquire outright the marketing and media rights held by CAF, which were never for sale and the very holding of such agency rights by Presentation would be in violation of its own articles of association. As has been clearly established by the Egyptian Competition Authority in the past in one of its own public reports, the agreement between CAF and Lagardère Sports is an agency agreement not a sale agreement.
“Any suggestion whatsoever of impropriety in relation to the commercial agreement is utterly without foundation and completely and vehemently denied.”
The timing of the new developments looks to be politically motivated with local media having been fed news by Egyptian government sources all week in what CAF has described as a “trial by media”.
CAF has not been given any opportunity to present their case to the competition authorities and has not met with the public prosecutor in the investigation.
“To date, the Egyptian Competition Authority and the Public Prosecutor, in quite remarkable and unprecedented fashion for regulatory bodies, have attempted to conduct a trial by media offering CAF no right of defence and serving it with no formal charges other than through the media. Indeed, the Public Prosecutor has referred its fait accompli case to the Egyptian Economic Court following only a few days of investigations without any communication or engagement whatsoever with CAF,” said the CAF press statement.
Presentation is a company understood to be majority owned by the Egyptian military. After some research it appears it has no other sports rights and its name has never appeared in conjunction with any other major international sports rights pitches for representation. It has no visible track record. Egyptian FA president Hany Abu Rida is rumoured to hold a 49% stake in the company. Abu Rida is running for FIFA Council seat in the upcoming elections.
Football in Egypt has long been used as a political tool with fans (ultras) having been active in the overthrow of government. Politically motivated violence sparked the Port Said massacre in 2012 in which 74 fans were killed and since then football has seen more riots and deaths. Ultras fan groups had provided much of the muscle in the street protests that lead to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Since then relations with security forces have been tense.
The Egyptian league, while playing again, still holds its matches behind closed doors with fans having to watch on television.
The entry of a military supported sports agency into the rights representation business seems a little incongruous in a country whose military backed government refuses to allow fans to attend league matches – for their own safety.
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