Africa’s leading pay-TV operator, StarTimes, has acquired broadcasting rights to the Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in sub-Saharan Africa.
StarTimes has been awarded pay-television and OTT media rights to the tournament across all sub-Saharan Africa territories in English, Portuguese and African local languages, StarTimes said in a press statement on Tuesday, January 4, 2021.
Felix Ahonzo, Chief Operations Officer of StarTimes Ghana, expressed his joy for the partnership with CAF to broadcast the greatest football event on the African continent.
“StarTimes has made a strategic priority to support African football and bring it to fans across the continent. We are honoured to partner with CAF again, following the successful broadcasting of the 2019 AFCON and the 2020 CHAN. To us, there is no better way to start 2022 than to watch African top players compete for the continental crown”.
StarTimes
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The 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations organized by the CAF will be played in Cameroon between January 9 and February 6, 2022. StarTimes disclosed that it will broadcast all 52 matches live and in full high-definition through eight sports channels as well as streaming service, StarTimes ON.
The TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations is to be played by 24 teams in five cities (Douala, Yaoundé, Bafoussam, Garoua and Limbe) across Cameroon, with Algeria as the defending champions.
Other Channels to broadcast the AFCON
Meanwhile, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has also secured the right to broadcast the tournament which kicks start in the next five days in Cameroon.
Being the station of the nation, securing the right means that football loving people across the length and breadth of the country can enjoy live updates of the upcoming tournament. No one will be left out in the tournament as it will be aired live on TV in Ghana as the country still waits its first AFCON trophy in 40 years.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Sky have also agreed a deal to broadcast the 2021 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Republic of Ireland, including the final game.
All is set for the tournament as some of the countries have already touched down in Cameroon ahead of the tournament.
Milovan Rajevac, the head coach of the Black Stars, has named a final 28-man squad for the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament after an initial provisional list of 30 players.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) announced that coach Milovan has dropped two players to make his final squad list. The players who have been relived are AS Roma youngster Felix Afena Gyan and Clermont Foot midfielder Salis Abdul Samed.
Friendly match against Algeria
Ahead of the tournament, the Black Stars will play an international friendly game against African Champions, Algeria on Wednesday, January 05, 2022, at the Education City Stadium in Doha to wrap up preparations ahead of the tournament.
Max TV, widely acclaimed as Ghana’s leading “Sports, Entertainment and More” television network, disclosed that it will telecast the pre-Afcon friendly at exactly 4pm tomorrow.
The Black Stars will then kick off their journey in the competition against North African giants, Morocco, on Monday, January 10, 2022 before taking on Gabon and Comoros in the other Group C matches.
It is however, doubtful if talented Ajax Amsterdam midfielder, Mohammed Kudus will be available for the tournament even though his name is part of the 28-man squad submitted to CAF.
Only three teams have won the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations title four or more times – Egypt, Cameroon and Ghana. But for the Egyptian duo of Ahmed Hassan and Essam El Hadary, they have individually won the continent’s most prestigious title four times each as Egypt holds the record of 7 AFCON titles.
