FIFA to Issue Centralized Media Right Tender for CAF's World Cup Qualifiers

World football’s governing body Fifa has launched an invitation to tender process for the centralised broadcast rights to all matches in the second round of qualifying, as well as the third-round play-offs, of the Confederation of African Football’s qualifying competition for the 2022 World Cup.

Following an agreement with all 54 member associations of Caf in August, the media rights to all African qualifiers for Qatar 2022 are being managed under a centralised sales model by Fifa. The media rights cover television, internet, mobile and radio transmissions.

The tender process launched today (Monday), with the bid submission deadline set at 2pm (GMT) on December 16. A question-and-answer period runs from today (Monday) until December 13.

Fifa said that broadcasters of the latest set of games, which will determine the final five qualifying nations from Africa, will be able to take advantage of a number of new elements that aim to substantially improve the African qualifying competition for audiences and broadcasters alike.

Improvements to be made include enhanced standard match production across all matches, commentary available in French and English, a unique brand identity, and a comprehensive on-screen graphics package for the centralised feeds.

In September, Fifa announced that it would live stream several of the first round of Caf qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in what it called a “landmark” initiative.

Centralised rights to Caf qualifiers to the 2014 and 2018 World Cups were sold by Caf to agencies Sportfive – now Lagardère Sports – and B4 Capital. But following the 2018 World Cup, African nations announced that they would be opting to sell media rights individually after having centralised the sales process in the two previous cycles.

The Lagardère Sports-B4 agreement for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers was announced eight years ago by Caf as a $23m (€20.4m) agreement covering centralised broadcast and sponsorship rights.

Fifa wrote to Caf member nations in August, calling on them to sign a mandate that would allow Fifa to collectively sell their media rights rights for qualifying matches to the 2022 and 2026 editions of football’s showpiece event. Fifa promised that centralisation would double revenue that African football’s governing body has raised through the sale of rights to qualifying matches.