Confederation of African Football secretary-general Moaz Hajji announced Thursday that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will release an official statement to clear the details of the ongoing dispute with French Lagardere group over the marketing rights of the continent's competitions. Hajji was speaking at the press conference of the teams participating in the continental tournament. Egypt will host the U23 Africa Cup of Nations from 8 to 22 November with the participation of African giants Mali, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Zambia and South Africa. "I am here to speak only about the U23 Africa Cup of Nations that kicks off on Friday," Hajji told the press conference ahead of the launching of the African tournament in Egypt. French Lagardere group, which has the exclusive marketing rights of African competitions until 2028, revealed that CAF had cancelled the $1 billion deal, which was signed in 2015 and will take "all measures" to preserve their marketing rights of the continent's competitions. "We didn't have more choices and I won't give more details The CAF will release a statement," Hajji said. CAF and Lagardere announced in mid-2015 a 12-year extension of a previous deal that ran from 2009 to 2016. The new deal was the subject of an investigation by the competition committee of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, which said it had many concerns over the length of the deal (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
