The attorney general referred the head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou, and its secretary general, Hicham El Amrani, to the economic court following a request from the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) in January.
This comes as a result of the CAF allegedly violating ECA Law No. 3 of 2005. The CAF has, according to the lawsuit, exploited its exclusive rights to sponsor African tournaments and the broadcasting rights, and it repeatedly granted them to only one company on a contract that ended in September 2016, before being renewed again until 2028. Furthermore, the CAF gave the same company priority to enjoy these rights until 2036.
In 2010, and again in June 2016, the ECA addressed CAF and the Egyptian Football Association, urging the need to coordinate with the ECA when the CAF is offering the broadcasting rights in order to abide by the law and protect competitiveness, as well as preserving the rights of Egyptian football fans. Yet, the ECA did not receive any response.
ECA head Mona El-Garf welcomed the decision, saying that the CAF practices have negatively impacted the market and the football fans in Egypt. She noted that the CAF practices have eliminated the opportunities of other networks to compete for the broadcasting rights.
