CAF has made a limited concession on television rights for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, increasing the number of matches available on free-to-air television just three days before the tournament begins in Morocco.
After weeks of pressure from public broadcasters across French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, the Confederation of African Football agreed to add one additional match to the free broadcast package.
The adjustment raises the total number of free-to-air games from 32 to 33, offering a small but symbolic response to growing discontent.
Louis Biyao, a Paris-based lawyer and spokesperson for New World TV, confirmed the decision on Wednesday, December 17. New World TV holds the CAF mandate to market broadcasting rights for its competitions across 46 sub-Saharan African countries.
Biyao said discussions between New World TV and several free-to-air broadcasters led directly to the revised offer.
He described the move as an effort to calm tensions that intensified as the tournament approached. According to Biyao, CAF approved the additional match only hours before the announcement, following coordinated talks with stakeholders involved in the dispute.
Since mid-November, a coalition of French-speaking public and private television stations had challenged the limited access to AFCON matches.
The broadcasters criticised the restriction on free coverage as the competition approaches its opening fixture on Sunday, December 21, when Morocco face Comoros at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
They argued that African governments largely fund the tournament and that the competition holds major social importance across the continent. On that basis, they demanded free access to all 52 matches.
Biyao rejected claims of surprise or late changes in the contractual framework.
He stressed that free-to-air broadcasters knew the exact number of matches included in the package from the outset of negotiations.He insisted that CAF and its commercial partners set those terms months ago and did not alter them during the sales process.
He also dismissed accusations of unequal treatment between linguistic regions. Biyao stated that CAF applies the same rules to French-speaking, English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking broadcasters, with no distinction between markets.
He said the increase from 32 to 33 matches applied universally and did not target any specific group.
While the adjustment falls far short of broadcaster demands, it marks CAF’s first visible step toward compromise ahead of kickoff.
Whether this limited gesture will defuse tensions remains uncertain, as debates over public access to major African football competitions continue to grow in intensity.
Nous réclamons les 52 matchs. La CAN est une compétition africaine majeure. Un événement des africains. C’est injuste que CAF empêche aux peuples africains de vivre pleinement l’événement.#justice pic.twitter.com/zwU6S41fCs
— Pape Alé Niang (@papealeniang) December 5, 2025
