By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (December 31st 2020)

Blame

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) knew that the collapse of its deal with Sports Lagardère was bound to have repercussions and it did. Lagardère felt wronged and wanted compensation – Supersport too. That resulted in a void in the coverage of CAF tournaments in Africa.

The lack of coverage affected sponsors and advertisers and fans as well. The investments of the sponsors and advertisers would not reach the football market without coverage. It was an economic disaster for CAF with or without Lagardère and it shows no sign of resolution.

The COVID-Effect

Within a few months a bad situation became even worse. A virus first mentioned in Wuhan, China, the Coronavirus developed into a Pandemic. It was badly handled by World leaders, resulting in lockdowns, denial and further waves. Several months later, it is in its Second Wave – another may follow. Sadly, it is far from the only Pandemic to have been handled badly.

At a time when African fans already supported European clubs more than their local teams, it was made harder to follow African teams – even in the biggest competitions. To make it worse, the Pandemic shows no signs of ending any time in the foreseeable future.

Just over a century earlier another Pandemic – the Spanish Flu Pandemic – was handled similarly by governments. Its dangers were denied at a time they were known about. Mishandling of that Pandemic in its early stages resulted in Second and Third Waves of it. Sadly, this Pandemic is proving that little or nothing has been learned from history.

Most of the world is suffering the Second Wave of COVID-19 and lockdowns are occurring or imminent again.

Football is far from immune. Competitions are taking place under various guidelines, but crowds are largely absent. Consequently, everyone interested in football depends on media to follow their teams. And reaching targeted audiences was affected too without fan attendance and media coverage. What were sponsors and advertisers getting for their money?

The Blame Game

While CAF bears some responsibility for the fiasco of the Agreement with Lagardère – it should have known about competitive tendering requirements – that applies to those who signed the deal and those who failed to exercise due care and diligence too.

If CAF must shoulder blame for this, surely that lies at the door of those who negotiated the deal, accepted it and signed it. What was Ahmad Ahmad’s administration supposed to do about this? After all he received the bathwater not the baby on this and the water was rank too.

The environment is new but television rights may be a good earner in the era of socially distanced football. It’s an ugly new world and football is far from immune from its effects.

But there’s far more to the rise and fall of Ahmad Ahmad than the Lagardère deal – in fact it wasn’t mentioned.

But given the findings of the Egyptian Economic Courts, why hasn’t FIFA’s Ethics Committee investigated it, especially as FIFA President Gianni Infantino was said to have wanted Issa Hayatou’s long reign at CAF ended in 2017?

As Marcus Tullius Cicero said over 2000 years ago, ‘qui benefacit aminæ (who benefits the most)?’ It hasn’t aged.