SuperSport have announced a halt in the broadcast of content from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) following the termination of Lagardere's $1 billion rights deal.
The decision means fans across the continent will not be able to watch the Africa U23 Cup of Nations, next week's 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and upcoming continental tournaments on DStv until further notice.
Earlier this week, Caf announced the termination of Lagardere's 12-year rights as the body's exclusive agent for the sale of marketing and media rights.
According to Caf's statement on Friday, the cancellation came after the deal was pronounced null and void by the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA), the Economic Courts of Cairo (ECC) and the Competition Commission of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa [the CCC].
It has consequently affected SuperSport, who bought broadcasting rights from the French agency.
"Due to the termination by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) of its agency agreement with Lagardere, SuperSport will not be broadcasting Caf content, commencing with the Afcon under-23 championship, starting in Egypt this weekend, until further notice. This also extends to the Afcon qualifiers, which resume on Wednesday, 13 November," the company's statement read, as per Times Live.
MultiChoice group executive for corporate affairs, Joe Heshu, lamented the situation in which the company finds itself with no alternative agreement in place for the games to be broadcast.
“We are in a difficult position where we cannot broadcast the Caf games when we don’t have a firm contractual arrangement in place. SuperSport previously acquired these broadcast rights from Lagardere‚” Heshu said.
