Back to the complete issue
Thursday, 5 January 2017

ECA refers CAF, beIN sports to prosecution ahead of AFCON

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is in violation of market competition laws, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) says. The ECA is accusing CAF President Issa Hayatou of abusing his controlling position by offering Lagardère Sports the exclusive rights to air CAF competitions for 12 years without allowing for a fair competition from other bidders. The ECA says it found evidence that CAF had reached the agreement with Lagardère Sports a year and a half prior to the expiry of the current one, which ends this year, ignoring calls for an open bidding process for them. This is in violation of Egyptian laws and has hurt the Egyptian economy, the ECA says. The authority has also referred beIN Sports to prosecution for forcing subscribers to switch from NileSat to Es’hailsat and selling packages for a number of different sports together in a bundle. The ECA had said last September it was going to take action against beIN Sports. CAF’s African Cup of Nations begins on Saturday, 14 January, and Egypt’s opening match is against Mali on Tuesday, 17 January.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.