At a press conference
at the Sandton Sun
Hotel, Johannesburg,
on Friday, CAF Secretary-General, Hicham El Amrani,
said the body would not bend its rule
for any member federation in order
to sustain its financial independence. The Nations Cup matches are not on
Nigerian televisions after the
Broadcasting Organisation of
Nigeria refused to go beyond the
$1.5m it offered for the coverage of
the matches. CAF rights holder, LC2, refused the offer, insisting on $6m. Amrani said, "Nigeria will purchase an
English package or a European
football package at the right price
but they want to purchase our
package free, or at a ridiculous
price. "We cannot go ahead with that,
there is a minimum balance we have
to maintain. Other countries have
done the right thing and showing the
matches at home. We cannot give out
the competition for nothing if we do not want to collapse. "CAF needs to secure two things. The
first is to sustain the maximum
coverage of the competition and the
other is to respect the laws of the
market and the prices. "We cannot sell to someone who
wants to buy at 20 times less than
the usual price, we cannot do this,
otherwise we will have to close our
doors. We cannot survive if we do not
sustain the minimum value of our television rights. "We have seen steady progress in the
Nations Cup in the last few years, this
is because we are self-sustainable
and financially independence." He also said CAF had no plan to
increase winners' prize money of
$1.5m for the championship.
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