ESPN, the major international sports broadcaster, has acquired exclusive rights in the Netherlands to the upcoming edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the national teams soccer competition.
The broadcaster will show all 52 matches from the tournament, with live coverage beginning with the opening game on Sunday when hosts Cameroon take on Burkina Faso.
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The competition concludes with the final on February 6. Both the opening game and the final will be played in the Olembe Stadium in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé.
The rights deal was brokered on behalf of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) by Agon, the France-based sports agency.
AFCON was delayed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The tournament will feature several players from the Dutch top-flight Eredivisie including Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana for Cameroon, as well as Moroccan internationals Zakaria Aboukhlal of AZ Alkmaar and Souffian El Karouani of NEC Nijmegen.
Agon has concluded several rights deals for AFCON in recent weeks including Sky and the BBC in the UK, Bandeirantes in Brazil, Viaplay (Nordics, Baltics, and Poland), Sportdigital Fussball and OneFootball (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), Discovery (Italy), and Sportklub (Balkans).
