Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADV) – Issa Hayatou, the longest-serving President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and his former secretary general, have slammed a US$ 27.9 million fine imposed on each of them and expressed desire to appeal.
Hayatou and his former Egyptian colleague Hicham El Amrani have not said when exactly they intend to face the Egyptian Economic Court with their appeal.
The EEC ruled this week that the pair abbrogated local Egyptian law by signing a billion-dollar deal between CAF and the French media company Lagardere in June 2015.
Hayatou facilitated the company to obtain broadcast rights for African football, including coverage of the flagship Africa Cup of Nations, between 2017 and 2028.
At the time, CAF responded that it did not sell any rights to Lagardere and had merely appointed the company as its marketing and media agent instead.
CAF at the time said Lagardere paid $1bn for the privilege of finding buyers for the rights which ‘remain vested at CAF’.
The EEC claimed that the deal was not open to free and fair tender as required by Egyptian law.
“This verdict is quite grotesque and has no justification in that it constitutes a flagrant disregard for the facts of the case and for the provisions of Egyptian and international competition law,” Cameroon’s Hayatou said in a statement, branding the verdict as “politically-motivated”.
But EEC retorts that CAF was governed by local laws.
Hayatou led CAF from 1988-2017.
© Bur-csa – N.W / From our regional correspondent Tamba Jean-Matthew III – African Daily Voice (ADV) – Follow us on Twitter : @ADVinfo_eng
