A small Togolese TV network, NWTV, acquired the rights to the 2022 World Cup for 19 African nations, beating long-established rivals in the bidding. How did they manage to get the funds to accomplish this miracle? Information received by Josimar suggests that the miracle-maker was none other than Caf president and close Infantino ally Patrice Motsepe.
By Philippe Auclair
The announcement made by Fifa on 26 July 2021 should have remained a footnote at the bottom of a report aimed at broadcasting professionals, nothing more. The governing body had granted the regional pay-TV rights to the 2022 Men's World Cup and the 2023 Women's World Cup, as well as the rights to some of its lesser competitions, to a Togolese network called New World TV, or NWTV for short. NWTV would be Fifa's exclusive pay-TV partner for the nineteen countries of the so-called 'French-speaking sub-Saharan region' (*). Another day, another deal - so what?
Yet, questions were raised within the industry from the outset, as there seemed to be something quasi-miraculous about NWTV's triumph. Something incomprehensible, even.
The Miracle
For how could a previously unknown company, with zero experience of broadcasting major sports events, no international structure and apparently very modest means, be preferred to competitors – IMG, Infront and Canal +, to name but three – who could all boast of a long and successful track records in that region, and whose financial muscle could not be doubted?
Why would and how could a local TV network with an exclusively local audience – and Togo's population is only 8.6 million inhabitants – suddenly aim for a market th...
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