NAIROBI, Kenya, July 4 – Pay Television StarTimes has acquired the exclusive media rights to the Chinese Super League across sub-Saharan Africa.
The deal will see 240 matches aired live in Kenyan households featuring top former English Premier League stars like Yao Kouassi Gervinho, Demba Ba, Obafemi Martins and Stephane Mbia.
“Football is religion in Africa. While Chinese Super League has excellent and amazing football players with strong presence of African stars,” said StarTimes Group vice president Michael Dearham.
He promised that the company would not take exclusive practices and would provide “free to air” signals, delivering CSL to all people.
“I know CSL now has a new road in the future,” Zhao Jun, president of China Sports Media.
She said CSL would take more African football stars to China in the future, which would help spread of CSL in Africa.
African players in the CSL include Hangzhou Greentown’s Davy Claude Angan (Ivory Coast), Hebei China Fortune’s Stephane Mbia (Cameroon) and Gervinho (Ivory Coast), Liaoning Whowin’s Assani Lukimya (Democratic Republic of Congo), Ibrahima Toure (Senegal) and James Chamanga (Zambia), Shanghai Shenhua’s Obafemi Martins (Nigeria) and Demba Ba (Senegal), Shanghai SIPG’s Asamoah Gyan (Ghana) and Jean Evrard Kouassi (Ivory Coast), Shijiazhuang Ever Bright’s Jacob Mulenga (Zambia), Tianjin Teda’s Zainadine Junior (Mozambique) and Mbaye Diagne (Senegal) and Yanbian Fude’s Bubacarr Trawally (Gambia).