CAF have signed a centralised TV and marketing rights contract worth “a minimum of $23-million (R175-million)” with SportFive for the qualifying games of the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

A statement on the CAF website explained that the deal was signed with Italian company B4 “associated to the French entity Lagardere Sport and its subsidiary SportFive”.

Under the terms of the deal, all revenue from the qualifying games will go into a pot which will then be distributed to each national association on a sharing formula to be decided by the CAF Executive Committee on September 28.

The CAF statement claims that the decision followed a unanimous resolution on May 21 by all of the national associations that constitute CAF, but a top Nigeria Football Federation official told KickOffNigeria.com that that was not the case.”There was no agreement to that effect. The idea was mooted, but Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria led some countries which made it clear they were unhappy with the arrangement.”

CAF President Issa Hayatou was reported as justifying the decision by saying the arrangement would allow “less privileged countries an opportunity to expose their matches on international platforms, considering the challenges facing some African countries in putting on an up to standard TV production.”

Additionally, Hayatou added that the agreement will allow for “a substantial increase of revenues for the vast majority of football associations”.

It is a sentiment not shared by the likes of Egypt, who claim they make an average of $5-million dollars from one qualifying match and consider CAF’s attempt to share $23-million among 52 associations unfair.

Nigeria and South Africa, who also have previous partnership deals with other broadcasters, are also in a bind.

The matches will be broadcast free on terrestrial television in all home associations.

The African qualifiers will begin in November 2011 and end in November 2013 and will involve 52 countries.