The Secretary General of the Confederation of African Football, Hicham El Amrani, admits the organisation will look into the causes to make sure there is no repeat of the lack of television coverage in Nigeria of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
Many Nigerians nearly missed out on the opportunity to see the Super Eagles lift the trophy in South Africa earlier in the year after the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria and the African Cup of Nations’s television broadcast rights owner were unable to come to an agreement regarding the sale of the rights to show the tournament in the West African country.
As a result, the competition was not shown on terrestrial television, with CAF accusing BON of offering to pay 20 times less than what they thought the rights were worth when the broadcaster was happy to spend considerably more on screening European football.
A last minute agreement between the parties saw the final between Nigeria and Burkina Faso screened on local televisions, but a bitter taste remained.
With Nigeria boasting such a large football-watching population but contributing so little to AFCON viewing, El Amrani says that steps will be made to rectify the situation heading to the 2015 edition in Morocco.
“Of course we will look into it, but people need to be realistic,” he told Football411 at the Soccerex African Forum.
“We are not FIFA, we are not UEFA, people cannot ask the same things from us.”
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