Ex-CAF boss Issa Hayatou's case moved to April 16

Former CAF President Issa Hayatou

Thursday Mar 22, 2018. 18:00

Former CAF president Issa Hayatou has seen his case on charges of violating local anti-monopoly rules postponed to April 16.

Media reports suggest that Hayatou and ex-CAF secretary general Hicham El Amrani’s case was postponed by Economic Misdemeanors Court to next month.

Hayatou is jointly charged with El Amrani by Egyptian authorities after accusing the duo of committing crimes when signing a multi-million dollar deal with sports agency Lagardere in June 2015.

The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) subsequently took the matter to court in January 2017 where they sued the continent’s football governing body for the suspension of the contract, maintaining that it violates the Egyptian anti-monopoly laws.

The continental football body argued that selling rights without opening them for due tender are incorrect, hence the duo is charged.

Egypt started to probe the Lagardere deal in June 2016, months after the failure of an Egyptian broadcaster, Presentation, to secure the right to broadcast CAF matches.

The company were reported to have tried to buy from Lagardère a sub-licence to broadcast matches in the Middle East and north-Africa region, but Lagardère sold those regional rights to the large Qatari-owned broadcaster BeIn Sports.

Soka25east reports that after that, Presentation reportedly made a bid directly to CAF, said to be $1.2bn, to buy the worldwide rights, but CAF had already sold these to Lagardère.

Lagardère Sports maintains that its 2017-28 contract with CAF was a fully legal renewal of its previous 2008-16 deal, and rejected the claims that it breached Egyptian competition law.