25, January 2020
Football: Eto’o says Drogba owes him two titles 0
FC Barcelona legend Samuel Eto’o has jokingly suggested that Didier Drogba owes him two African Footballer of the Year awards.
The African legend officially hung up his boots in September 2019 after glittering success at club level and Cameroon over a remarkable 22-year career.
With 18 major titles, which includes two Africa Cup of Nations winners medals and four African Footballer of the Year awards, Eto’o is considered as one of the greatest the continent has ever produced.
However, in an exclusive interview with Kick Off Magazine, Eto’o claims he probably deserved more as he reflects on his achievements in the game.
Eto’o retires as Cameroon’s all-time record goalscorer with 56 goals in 118 caps between 1997 and 2014.
“Normally, I should have won that award [African Football of the Year] 12 times, but I fought with all of CAF about that,” Eto’o said. “They only gave it to me four times and not 12!”
When pressed that the likes of Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure provided him with healthy competition for the prestigious honour he remained unperturbed: “I think two [African] Ballon d’Ors of Didier is mine!”
Source: KickOff
25, January 2020
African Union of Broadcasting issues CAF rights fees warning 0
The African Union of Broadcasting, the body of free-to-air broadcasters, has called for a drop in the rights fees paid by African public broadcasters for major football tournaments held in the continent.
The AUB outlined its position following meetings in Douala, Cameroon with the general directors of public broadcasters.
AUB member broadcasters’ bids for rights to both the 2020 African Nations Championships and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations could be affected by the stance. Both tournaments will be held in Cameroon with the 2021 Afcon having recently been rescheduled to take place in January and February.
Grégoire Djaka, the AUB director general, said that the cost of the broadcast rights “is very high and represents a third of the broadcasters’ budget in some countries”.
Quoted by the Actu Cameroun website, Djaka said that he hopes to “use everything we have in our culture to make these costs accessible to everyone”. He invited the public broadcasters to “address their difficulties in order to take good decisions and improve what has happened until now”.
No guidance has been offered by the AUB in terms of how much it is proposing to reduce its rights costs (or bids) by.
Broadcast rights to the two tournaments have been sold by Lagardère Sports but the Confederation of African Football recently informed the agency of its decision to terminate the $1bn (€903m) agreement, which was due to run from 2017 to 2028.
At the end of last year, the AUB and CRTV, the public broadcaster in Cameroon, ended a dispute over outstanding rights fee payments.
The resolution followed a stand-off over rights fee costs to Fifa competitions and qualifying matches for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
The two parties said in December that they have come to an agreement for CRTV to “do everything possible” to ensure a $160,000 payment is made for rights to Fifa-sanctioned events in 2016. The payment is to be made “without undue delay”.
With regards to an outstanding rights fee for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches, CRTV has vowed to “once again refer the matter to the public treasury [in Cameroon] for the execution of the payment order”.
Source: Sports Business