SABC confirmed on Friday morning that the competition which they've broadcasted since the start of the group stages would have a blackout after CAF sold the exclusive rights to SuperSport.
With millions of South African football fans now unable to watch the historic final between Kaizer Chiefs and Pitso Mosimane's Al Ahly, an uproar ensued shortly after the announcement.
The General Manager of Sport at the public broadcaster Gary Rathbone has offered clarity over why the deal fell through after initially airing the games over the past few months.
"We were negotiating with CAF over the last two weeks trying to structure a deal, we had the rights to all the group stage home games which we showed and were looking forward to taking all the way," Rathbone confirmed to snl24.com/kickoff.
"We thought we had a good understanding with CAF and that we could negotiate in good faith, we went in with our offer which I think was more than reasonable in the first instance which if you consider is just for one match.
"The money they were asking for I could buy a whole league season, never mind one game. From their point of view, we carried on negotiating and then all of a sudden they said, sorry we've ended negotiations we've sold everything to another broadcaster and that was a shock for us."
Rathbone added that there was no warning before the completely ended talks with the African football governing body despite their willingness to have met their initial demands in order to secure the final for the South African public.
"In any negotiation process, if another offer comes, you go to the people you were in talks with and say there's another offer, would you like to up your bid, what do you want to do," he explained.
"But there was no engagement, just someone saying the deal is done, we've done another deal you guys can sit down and go away.
"Even though the prices they were asking for was pretty extensive, we were prepared to match them and prepared to offer it. We did actually make an offer when we went back and the fact is that was rejected and the deal was done, which was shocking.
"The fee that they were asking for the match was more than what we paid for the entire season of the Bundesliga, which gives you an idea of where they were at."