Ziggo Sport Acquires Broadcasting Rights for AFCON 2024-2025

Ziggo Sport, the Dutch pay-television network owned by telecoms operator Vodafone Ziggo, has secured exclusive rights in the Netherlands to the men’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), the continent’s premier national teams’ soccer tournament, for the next two years. The deal, struck with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) governing body, will see Ziggo Sport air the next two editions of the tournament in 2024 and 2025 across its linear channel, Ziggo Go app, and Ziggo Sport Totaal platform. Ziggo Sport’s coverage of AFCON 2024, which is being held in Ivory Coast, will run from January 13 to February 14, with the tournament featuring the 24 best national teams from Africa competing to be crowned champion. The upcoming edition was initially scheduled for 2023 but was postponed by a year due to extreme weather conditions in Ivory Coast. The 2025 edition, meanwhile, will be held in Morocco during the middle of the year to bring the competition in line with other national team tournament schedules. Ziggo Sports director Marcel Beerthuizen said: “AFCON is a great tournament with spectacular matches that fans enjoy and that is closely followed by many people in the Netherlands. “It is unique that two editions take place in a row [in consecutive years]. It is a wonderful addition to our already extensive football offering.” Two players currently participating in the top-tier Eredivisie domestic league are due to compete in the competition - Feyenoord’s Zerrouki (Algeria) and Minteh (Gambia). In addition, a number of well-known former English Premier League players such as Ziyech, Mazraoui, Amrabat (Morocco), Haller (Ivory Coast), Kudus (Ghana) and Onana (Cameroon) will also take part. Well-known international stars such as Salah (Egypt), Osimhen (Nigeria), Hakimi (Morocco) and Mané (Senegal) will also compete for the most important prize on the African continent. The new rights add to Ziggo Sport’s extensive soccer portfolio, which includes top-tier leagues and competitions in Europe such as Spain’s LaLiga and the Copa del Rey, Italy’s Serie A and Coppa d’Italia, Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League and Croky Cup, France’s Ligue 1, England’s FA Cup, the German DFB-Pokal, the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the Turkish Super Lig, and the Scottish Premiership. Other rights include UEFA’s pan-European club competitions – Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League – as well as the qualifiers and main event for the Nations League national teams competition.