The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has paid $50 million to settle a dispute with its former marketing partner, Lagardère Sports. The out-of-court settlement was disclosed during CAF’s congress in Addis Ababa on Tuesday. Lagardère Sports had sued CAF for compensation after the football body abruptly cancelled their 10-year, $1 billion agreement in 2019.
The French company had held the marketing, sponsorship, and television rights to all CAF competitions for two decades. CAF stated it had to terminate the deal after two court rulings found that the agreement was made without proper tender. Lagardère Sports, now known as Lagardère Unlimited, accepted the settlement, with CAF paying in two equal tranches.
The last payment was made at the end of last year, according to CAF’s finance committee vice chairman, Andrew Kamanga. During the congress, CAF president Patrice Motsepe informed that the organisation had made a $72 million profit from this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast. This is a significant increase from the $4 million profit for the 2021 finals in Cameroon.
Settlement with Lagardère Sports
CAF projected a revenue of almost $150 million for the 2024-2025 financial year, with expenses of $138.2 million. Approximately 30 per cent of the budget would be spent on development programmes and contributions to CAF’s 54-member associations.
The congress also approved a proposal to give each association president an annual salary of $50,000 from the $400,000 annual contribution. Motsepe, who is expected to stand for re-election next year, stated that CAF aimed to increase African football’s revenue to $1 billion over the next eight years. “We are having a lot of discussions with potential sponsors,” he told the congress in the Ethiopian capital.
He said CAF wanted to allocate $1 million annually to each member association from 2026. Motsepe also addressed the treatment of visiting teams, following an incident where Nigeria’s national team was held at a Libyan airport for half a day before a scheduled Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Nigeria refused to play the game after alleging they were held hostage by Libyan authorities.
“National teams must be treated with respect. If there are violations, we’ll take action,” said Motsepe.
