The Confederation of African Football has blamed the Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria (BON) for bungling its broadcast rights deal of the ongoing African Cup of Nations. Some 100 million Nigerians are currently denied the opportunity to watch the tournament on terrestrial tv.
CAF Secretary General Hicham El Amrani told the press men at the Sandton Sun Hotel on Friday that ‘Nigeria proposed a small bid for the continent’s top competition when it spends so much in getting English and European football rights’.
‘CAF was not ready to bend its rules in favour of any member nation’.
Nigeria was not allowed to transmit the AFCON 2013 soccer tournament on terrestrial TV because BON wanted to pay $1.5 million for the television rights but LC2 the AFCON‘s TV broadcast owner requested 4.5 million Euros so Nigeria was cut out of TV broadcast rights.
El Amrani further said that “CAF needs to secure two things. The first is to sustain the maximum coverage of the competition and the other is to respect the laws of the market and the prices,”
“We cannot sell to someone who wants to buy at 20 times less than the usual price, we cannot do this otherwise we will have to close our doors. We cannot survive if we do not sustain the minimum value of our television rights.
“We have seen steady progress in the Nations Cup in the last few years, this is because we are self-sustaining and financially independent.
“Nigeria will go and purchase an English package or European football package at the right price but they want to purchase our package free or at a ridiculous price. We cannot go ahead with that, there is a minimum balance we have to maintain,” El Amrani concluded
Nigeria will meet Cote Ivoire tomorrow at the Quarter Finals of the ongoing tournament in South Africa
[Sahara Reporters]
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