The Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) has signed Egyptian broadcaster ON Sport to show its first Cairo event live across Egypt. The agreement, announced on 15 October, covers every competition at the Longines Global Champions Tour of Cairo founded by Qatar’s Years Of Culture, held at the Pyramids of Giza from 22 to 24 October 2026. That includes all CSI5* classes, both rounds of the GCL of Cairo team competition and the €1 million Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Cairo presented by Tatweer Masr.
The tour describes ON Sport as a leading name in Egyptian sports broadcasting, with television, radio and digital coverage. The release does not give financial terms or say whether the coverage is free to view. In its 16 October rider announcement, the tour says fans can follow all the action live on its GCTV service.
Total prize money for the three days is €1.75 million, the tour confirmed on 7 October. Cairo is Stage 14 of the 2026 season and the last stop before the finals in Rabat, Morocco, from 30 October to 1 November.
Qatar’s role
Years of Culture, which the tour describes as Qatar’s cultural diplomacy initiative, is the founding partner of the Cairo leg. It also holds the title of the season’s finals, the Longines Global Champions Tour of Rabat founded by Qatar’s Years of Culture. The tour says the Cairo event marks an expansion of that partnership and looks ahead to Egypt’s participation as a partner country in the Qatar, Egypt and Greece 2027 Year of Culture. In Morocco, it says, the support builds on connections from the Qatar-Morocco 2024 Year of Culture. None of the releases states what Years of Culture pays for its title positions.
The tour’s 2026 calendar starts and ends in the region. The season opened in Doha from 4 to 7 March and, after Cairo and Rabat, finishes in Riyadh from 18 to 21 November, where the GCL Super Cup is to be contested as part of the season-ending Playoffs. Rabat, which first hosted the tour in 2024, will hold the GCL Final on 30 October and the Longines Global Champions Tour Final on 1 November, on a 5.5-hectare site in the heart of the city.
Welfare and the host federation
The tour’s 7 October release also said the Egyptian Equestrian Federation is leading an initiative on horses working within the Pyramids Plateau area, with the General Organization for Veterinary Services, Giza Governorate, Orascom Pyramids and Brooke, to support veterinary care, equine health and working conditions. The release does not give a budget or timetable for that work.
The 16 October rider announcement lists Egypt’s Sameh El Dahan and Nayel Nassar among the starters, together with riders the tour describes as regional stars, including Sheikh Ali Al Thani and Abdulrahman Alrajhi. The LGCT, founded in 2006 by Jan Tops, is marking its 20th anniversary this year, and its team competition, the GCL, created in 2016, its tenth.
Equanine’s reading
- Qatar’s cultural diplomacy programme is now a title partner for top-level show jumping outside the Gulf, at two of the last three stops of the 2026 tour, while Riyadh hosts the closing Playoffs.
- Adding a national broadcaster in a new host market, alongside the tour’s own streaming platform, is the model to watch. Rights holders weighing pay platforms against reach in emerging markets will look at how ON Sport’s coverage performs.
- For organisers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar bidding for five-star dates, the Cairo package of a culture-diplomacy title partner, a heritage setting, a local broadcaster and a welfare programme alongside sets the standard they will be compared with.
