Media rights for three UEFA club competitions have gone to tender in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, with any interested parties given a deadline of 11 December 2023 to submit bids.
The ‘Invitation to Submit Offer’ (ISO) for the region was issued yesterday (27 November), covering the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Champions League Opening Tournament and UEFA Youth League for the 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
As with other regions – with the exception of the US – the tender process will be overseen by UEFA’s sports marketing agency, TEAM Marketing. The tender comes not long after the launch of a bidding contest for broadcasting rights in Vietnam on 6 November and Albania on 8 November.
As it stands, UEFA’s rights to the Champions League – its most high-profile and widely viewed club competition – are held by Canal+ Afrique and SuperSport, with the letter holding exclusive rights in South Africa.
The duo hold joint non-exclusive rights to the remainder of the Sub-Saharan African region, dividing their broadcasting along language lines – SuperSport provides English and Portuguese coverage, and Canal+ provides French coverage.
Both broadcasters may have their work cut out over the coming months, as UEFA’s tender launch closely follows the beginning of FIFA’s own bidding contest for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup, which has an ISO deadline of 13 December.
As with UEFA rights, SuperSport has the dominant position with World Cup broadcasting although Canal+ is still a strong contender, and the latter could see itself facing other high profile bidding battles as it also calls for a fresh tender for French Lique 1 rights.
For UEFA’s other tenders, bidding for the rights to the Europa League, Conference League and new Europa Super Cup will be held separately.
