AFCON is a celebration of footballing talent, passion and African continental unity, and has had fans enthralled since it kicked off on 21 December 2025 in Rabat. The biggest show in African football – the 35^th AFCON – culminates in the final on 18 January, also in Rabat.

The tournament has attracted a global audience across 180 territories, and is set to exceed the record-breaking 2023 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire, which drew 1.5 billion viewers from around the planet. However, that popularity makes the event a prime target for content-piracy syndicates.

These criminal networks rob football of the income that legitimate broadcasters and rightsholders contribute to the development of the game. Watching pirate AFCON streams is stealing from the sport you claim to love. It is the responsibility of all true fans to kick piracy into touch. Learn to identify pirate content – then avoid it and report it.

Piracy commits a foul against the beautiful game. Here are some tips on identifying pirate streams.

You’re asked to use a VPN

A virtual private network, or VPN, encrypts your internet connection, so you become an anonymous user. It has legitimate uses, but pirate websites such as torrenting sites get users to employ VPNs to avoid detection by law enforcement. Most legal streaming sites don’t require a VPN, so it can be a sign of pirate content.

Free content

Showing AFCON for free is another red flag. Only state broadcasters and legitimate streaming platforms have the resources to acquire the AFCON rights. Any other site streaming AFCON for free has probably stolen the content. In Africa, SuperSport has the rights to show AFCON across English- and Portuguese-speaking Sub-Saharan African territories.

Lame site design

In the same way that a football team that doesn’t have a proper match strip is probably not very good, a poorly designed website is a sign of pirate content. If the site looks like something from the 1990s with flashing graphics, garish colours, spelling errors and lame fonts, get out of there! A legal site will have consistent brand design, customer support and paid subscription offers. Visit dstv.com to find out how to stream AFCON legally.  

Neverending links

It’s like being forced to retake a penalty 25 times! You open a site that supposedly offers free streaming, and you get faced with a pop-up link to another site, which features another pop-up and another site. This may or may not lead to free streaming, but the feed is almost definitely pirated, and you’re leaving yourself open to hacking, viruses, malware and other cyber-risks.

Copyright disclaimers

Pirate sites may feature pop-ups or an About section claiming that they “do not condone the illegal sharing of copyrighted material.” This is just a formality, and an attempt to wash their hands of their own content piracy. Pirate streams place the platform and the viewers at risk of arrest, fines and other penalties.

No app-based streaming

Legal streaming platforms like DStv Stream will ask users to download a mobile app from Apple, Google or another respected app store. If you can only stream straight from a website, or through an obscure app site, you may be using pirated content and cheating the sport you love.

Pirated sports streams are a form of stealing. They rob rightsholders of the income that is paid towards CAF for the growth and development of football. Piracy undermines Africa’s most-loved sport. If you see any of the signs above on your AFCON stream, report the site to Partners Against Piracy at +27 11 289 2684 or piracy@multichoice.co.za.