Court rejects Hayatou, Amrani appeals – confirms $60m fine over TV deal
A high court in Egypt has rejected an appeal by former CAF boss, Issa Hayatou and his General Secretary, Hicham El-Amrani, ruling that the duo must pay a collective fine of $60m for various breaches in awarding television and marketing contracts.
The court also ruled on Sunday that the two leading figures, who were previously in charge of Africa’s football governing body, must also pay for the ruling to be published in two of the country’s biggest newspapers at their cost over the contract awarded to Lagardere.
The court rejected the claim of the duo that they must not be held personally liable for the decision since they were acting on behalf on CAF.
Hayatou, a leading figure in African football for decades, and his Moroccan administration chief must also pay all costs associated with the court processes after they were confirmed guilty of having violated several codes when awarding the deal to the French company.
The two men filed an appeal over last year’s decision by the Cairo Economic Court to fine them 500 million Egyptian pounds ($30m) each over numerous violations including contravening the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices Act.
Hayatou and El-Amrani faced charges of violating Egypt’s competition law in selling exclusive broadcast and sponsoring rights to Lagardere Sports without a tender.
The broadcast rights were granted under Hayatou’s reign for a period of 12 years from 2017 to 2028, unfairly without offering other companies the same chance.
This sparked the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA), led by Mona al-Garf, to file a claim against Hayatou accusing him of violating Article 8 of the Competition Protection Act during his presidency of the CAF, by granting the broadcast rights to a favored company.
The case was referred to the prosecution in 2017 and the court ruled in favour of the ECA and fined both Hayatou and El-Amrani because the contract with Lagardere did not comply with Egypt’s anti-monopoly laws.
The duo subsequently went to the high court to appeal the decision claiming they should not be personally liable since they were acting on behalf of CAF but their claim was not accepted which means they must now pay the hefty fines.
CAF was founded in 1957 in Khartoum by the Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese football associations.
Since Cairo is home to the CAF headquarters, the decisions of its officials should be in accordance with the local laws, according to the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA).