The Confederation of African Football (CAF) was forced to pay $50 million to what was then the Lagardere Sports agency (now Sportfive) after unilaterally terminating a long-term marketing deal in 2019.
This payment, paid by CAF in two equal installments after Lagardere sued for compensation following the agreement’s termination, was revealed to the recently-concluded CAF congress earlier this week. Indeed, CAF’s financial committee vice chair Andrew Kamanga told the congress that the second of these installments was only paid at the end of 2023.
The original dispute came after CAF prematurely canceled its long-term deal with Lagardere - which covered marketing, sponsorship, and broadcast rights - five years ago.
At the time, the regional soccer federation claimed it was obliged to cancel the deal - a 12-year agreement unveiled in 2015 - after a pair of court rulings found the final agreement between the pair had been concluded without a proper tender process.
Indeed, two high-ranking CAF executives at the time - former president Issa Hayatou and secretary general Hicham El Amrani - were fined heavily in late 2018 over what was described as an anti-competitive agreement between the body and Lagardere.
However, Lagardere did not accept this version of events, ending up suing for compensation, and described the CAF decision as “unlawful, unreasonable and unjustified.”
It was heavily reported that Lagardere had originally been pushing for a compensation figure closer to $90 million, but chose to eventually accept $50 million.
The deal between the two bodies involved rights across essentially all of CAF’s top-tier club and national team competitions.
Overall, CAF president Patrice Motsepe - up for re-election next year - described the settlement to the congress as “in the best interests of the organisation.”
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Véron Mosengo-Omba, CAF general secretary, is under investigation in Switzerland for criminal mismanagement of funds.
The African official has been accused of making a series of suspicious payments to Swiss bank accounts but has vigorously denied the claims, which were revealed on October 2 by a public disclosure from the Federal Criminal Court (FCC) of Switzerland.
Elsewhere at the congress, CAF revealed it has projected revenue of close to $150 million for the 2024-25 financial year, while Motsepe said that the eventual aim is to increase revenues to $1 billion across the next eight years.
Lagardere, meanwhile, rebranded to Sportfive in May 2020, following its takeover by H.I.G Europe, a division of the USA-based private equity and alternative assets investment firm.
The original Sportfive agency had initially been acquired by Lagardere in 2006.
