The Guardian:

BeoutQ has launched "a major piracy operation against beIN Media Group", the African football association said. It made clear that it "strongly condemns the practice of the audiovisual piracy of sport events", which it called "a real scourge for our industry".

"The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) reminds that, it holds, on an exclusive basis, all the rights pertaining to its competitions, including all the related matches and any related official events, without any restrictions as to content, time, place and law," its statement read. It said the rights to broadcast the tournament in a range of middle eastern and north African countries had been sold exclusively to beIN.

"CAF is determined to take all necessary against 'beoutQ' if any of CAF matches is pirated."

BeIN media is reported to have lost some 40 per cent of its subscriber base as a result of losing the roughly 900,000 customers it had in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt – which is back in the World Cup this year after a 28 year absence – has also suggested that it could resort to piracy of beIN's feeds to ensure that its country's fans could watch the tournament. A statement from the competition authority said that fans had a "a right" to watch the games, urged Fifa to make them available, and said that fans might be able to view copies of beIN's streams instead.

The United Arab Emirates joined with Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the blockade of Qatar. But its broadcasters appear to have come to a deal with beIN, which is showing the tournament there.

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