Knowing how piracy destroys the football ecosystem empowers fans to make ethical choices in how they support their sport and makes them more likely to access games through legitimate channels
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – On the evening of 21 December 2025, a football match will kick off between Morocco and Comoros in Rabat. It will be the opening game of the 35th edition of the TotalEnergies CAF African Cup of Nations (TotalEnergies CAF AFCON) tournament. The game will have an audience of millions.
There will likely be a full house of 68,000-odd fans at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, but the overwhelming majority of fans will watch the game via streaming and television, from across the African continent – and the world.
At the previous TotalEnergies CAF AFCON tournament in 2024, the semi-final match between South Africa and Nigeria had a record-breaking audience of 10.3 million. The tournament itself had an estimated cumulative total viewership of 1.4 billion TV viewers.
The sale of broadcast rights to reach this enormous audience provides the income that makes the tournament possible. Media businesses invest billions in securing the feed for their home markets. In sub-Saharan Africa, those rights have been secured by MultiChoice, a CANAL+ company, through SuperSport, its sports broadcasting affiliate.
Beyond rights payments, media investment sustains an entire economy that runs for the duration of the month-long tournament. Film crews, accommodation, logistics, and catering are hired by broadcast teams.
Media funds football: Broadcast licence fees also finance the Confederation of African Football (CAF) itself, the body that administers football on the continent. In many ways, media coverage funds football. Revenue from broadcast rights underpin the development programmes that find talent at youth level, and help to nurture it.
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