The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is in violation of market competition laws, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) says. The ECA is accusing CAF President Issa Hayatou of abusing his controlling position by offering Lagardère Sports the exclusive rights to air CAF competitions for 12 years without allowing for a fair competition from other bidders. The ECA says it found evidence that CAF had reached the agreement with Lagardère Sports a year and a half prior to the expiry of the current one, which ends this year, ignoring calls for an open bidding process for them. This is in violation of Egyptian laws and has hurt the Egyptian economy, the ECA says. The authority has also referred beIN Sports to prosecution for forcing subscribers to switch from NileSat to Es’hailsat and selling packages for a number of different sports together in a bundle. The ECA had said last September it was going to take action against beIN Sports. CAF’s African Cup of Nations begins on Saturday, 14 January, and Egypt’s opening match is against Mali on Tuesday, 17 January.

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