Lagos — SuperSport has promised football fans in Nigeria a world-class telecast/analysis of matches of both the African Cup of Nations slated to hold next January in Angola and the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals of South Africa.

Felix Awogu, the general manager of SuperSport Nigeria in making this promise, also said the cable channel has exclusive rights from both CAF and FIFA to air the matches of the two tournaments in the Nigerian territory.

He said: "SuperSport has the exclusive rights of the World Cup and the Nations' Cup. It is a celebration for us in Africa and that is why we have promised to deliver a world class event for our subscribers," observed the sports broadcaster turned administrator. He pointed at the quality broadcast SuperSport delivered for both the FIFA Under-17 World Cup and the Beach World Cup as signs of what to expect in the two football fiestas slated for next year in Africa.

"We are going to deliver on our promise. There is going to be a dedicated channel (SuperSport 3) that will run 24/7 World Cup stuffs during the tournaments. There will be other channels to also run analysis and matches. Of course, there will be lots of avenues for viewers to win in contests, while the competition lasted."

Awogu listed some ex-internationals like Daniel Amokachie, Victor Ikpeba, Austin Eguavoen and Stephen Keshi to be on sets from time to time to analyse matches when exigencies of duties allow.

Segun Fayose, Head Corporate Communications of MultiChoice Nigeria, in his contribution described the acquisition of the rights to the World Cup Finals airing as an opportunity by SuperSports to further restate its leading position in the cable TV business in the continent. "For us this is a milestone and we are going to celebrate it in our usual ways of delivering quality broadcast."

On the speculations that another pay channel had acquired the broadcast rights of the English Premier League for the next three football seasons, the SuperSport chiefs dispelled it as a mere rumour. "We did submit a bid that is wonderful and irresistible, and there is no official statement from the League to the effect of who has been awarded the rights. So for now, we are going to discountenance that speculation," said Awogu.