CAF set to make Africa’s biggest digital history in Algeria

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson 

Africa is set to make a huge limp on the global digital landscape with the continent’s football governing body CAF announcement of heavy investments on Television (TV) for the delayed 2022-CHAN tourney underway this Friday in Algeria.

Specifically, more investment is being made by CAF in the production of the product. While in the past a standard 10 to 14- camera plan has been used, CAF is now doubling the number of cameras including the use of a spider cam for all the matches in the Nelson Mandela Stadium.

In addition, CAF has also confirmed the introduction of colour-commentary using legends at the TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2022 for the first time – in July 2022.

“At least 66 countries will watch the opening acts plus the encounter live from the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers on Friday, 13 January at 20h00 (19h00 GMT) where over 24 cameras will be used including extra ENG crews around the stadium that will be giving more coverage to the first ever CHAN to be played on Algerian soil,” CAF said in a Tuesday statement.

These development are aimed to enhance advanced viewer experience for the CHAN tournament which has made for a “60% increase in the number of cameras in competition including high tech slow-motion cameras, let English Crews will follow teams for more insights at the same time offering opportunity to EX-football stars of Africa including Mozambique’s Tico-Tico Bucuane, Ivorian Eric Babou, former Botswana international Dipsy Selolwane and ex-Cameroon midfielder Joel Epalle to join the CAF commentary team for the first time in history.

On his part, CAF’s Chief Operations Officer Mr. Abi Ijasamni said: “One of the areas we knew we had to strengthen was Television. When we say that African football must be globally competitive, we also mean that the TV product must be the best. Our Broadcast and TV team has been working hard to ensure that we produce world class productions. The team is exploring modern technology including spider cameras.”