Johannesburg — The South African Football Association (Safa) are ready to pull the plug on their partnership with the SABC if things do not improve.
After agreeing on four-year contract in 2019, Safa were expected to see the SABC plough a significant amount of money into the association, while ensuring that their matches — across junior and senior national teams - are televised on SABC 1, 2 and 3.
But the South African national broadcaster has failed to live up to expectations on both ends, cutting the R110million yearly investment to a measly R25m, while some crucial Safa matches have only been broadcast on streaming services.
Those irregularities have backed Safa into a corner in terms of the day-to-day operations — despite reporting that they have incurred a loss of only R2.9m in the 2022 financial year. With the two entities heading for the end of their contract in September, Safa said they will meet with the SABC to map a way forward — even though they are yet to decide on renewing their relationship.
However, a source close to dealings told Independent Media that, “Safa are ready to jump ship and join forces with pay channel SuperSport” due to the complicated agreement they've had with the SABC.
Safa are pressed to find ways of generating income to boost their cash flow and with TV rights generating the greater percentage in revenue in most countries, Safa expected the SABC to also fulfil that role.
And after convening for an workshop and 31st ordinary congress last weekend, Safa chief executive Tebogo Motlanthe said they've already engaged with parliament’s sports portfolio committee about their struggles with the national broadcaster.
“The chair of the sports portfolio committee, Beauty Dlulane, was here (at the congress) and said she will push our issue around broadcasting,” Motlanthe said.
“Because we are saying it’s an anomaly only in South Africa that the (broadcast) revenue (for the association) is 16%. You look elsewhere and most of their budgets are made up (largely) from broadcasting.”
While the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has encouraged SA’s international teams to be on free-to-air services, Safa says they want to benefit from their relationship with the SABC.
“Of course, there are laws of the country, and you have Icasa that says you must be on free-to-air,” Motlanthe said.
“But going forward we need to unpack it. We need to say if we have someone who can give us money for live-streaming, we need to go to that person.
“If there is a pay channel interested in one of our properties, we should be able to sell that to them.
“We are not saying we are serving divorce papers to the national broadcaster, but we are saying, ‘national broadcaster, also be reasonable’.
Sports, arts and culture minister Zizi Kodwa has also encouraged the broadcast of local and international matches on free-to-air services. However, amid the recent spat between Safa and the SABC, there is a cloud of uncertainty hanging over those aspirations.
Pressed for comments by Independent Media on the matter, the office of the minister said they will engage with relevant stakeholders on the matter and return with answers.
IOL Sport