The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has concluded a deal worth well in excess of R1-billion over five years with SuperSport, giving the pay channel exclusive TV rights on all their fixtures.
The bombshell announcement was made by PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza at the league’s Parktown offices on Thursday and is the culmination of a simmering war with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), who has held the TV rights since the league’s inception nine seasons ago.
Effectively, the move would deprive the bulk of South Africa’s millions of passionate soccer fans of the means to watch Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and the other PSL teams on TV — although Khoza stressed the deal with SuperSport was conditional on them offering the rights of whichever games they saw fit to rival TV broadcasters.
PSL chief operations officer Ronnie Schloss confirmed that after the ongoing deadlock with SABC, the national broadcaster had not as much as tendered a bid for the league’s TV rights.
SuperSport CEO Imtiaz Patel said his company was ”humbled and proud” to have been chosen as the broadcast partner of the PSL
Speaking after the announcement, Patel added he was confident the partnership would take football to unprecedented levels of success.
”The investment in the PSL is about a belief in ourselves as South Africans, and a belief in our future,” he said. ”It reflects our confidence and trust in the leadership of the PSL.
”It is also an investment in clubs, players, officials, development programmes, infrastructure and many millions of supporters when we are on the threshold of hosting the World Cup, the greatest sporting spectacle on earth.”
In his reaction to the announcement, group CEO of the SABC Dali Mpofu responded by saying the ”deal” between the PSL and SuperSport was a laughable sham.
”The so-called ‘deal’ reached between the PSL and SuperSport on the broadcast rights is a laughable sham and has no force and effect and is calculated to mislead and confuse the public,” he said.
”The simple truth is these rights are the subject of a dispute currently in arbitration between the SABC and the PSL.
”The arbitration proceedings were postponed while the arbitrator was deciding the SABC’s opposed application to include the fact the PSL has not conducted itself in good faith in this matter.
”The arbitrator last Monday gave his judgment in favour of the SABC’s application. The matter will now proceed on the broadened terms of reference and pleadings.
”Should the SABC be successful in the arbitration, which we are confident will be the case, then the ‘deal’ with SuperSport will be nullified.
”Even if the SuperSport deal were not null and void, the PSL would still be obliged to offer the rights to the SABC to exercise its right to match the SuperSport offer in terms of the contract between the SABC and the PSL.
”The public must be patient and rest assured that the SABC will pursue its rights and the public’s interests vigorously. Nobody must be fooled into thinking that this matter is over.
”In fact, the arbitration process, which both parties submitted to, has not yet started to deal with the merits of the case. No amount of smoke or mirrors or subterfuge will change this fact. The PSL/SuperSport ‘deal’ only exists in the world of fantasy and wishful thinking,” he concluded.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Patrick Craven warned last month that it would fight to ensure that the sport is not moved away from the working class and the poor who have no access to SuperSport.
”Soccer is the sport of the people, and should be made accessible to the widest possible audience. Cosatu is therefore totally opposed to any move to switch TV coverage to channels such as SuperSport, which have a restricted audience”.
Meanwhile, Parliament’s sports portfolio committee chairperson Butana Kompela said on Thursday said it would be a sad day for soccer fans if PSL matches were exclusively televised on the pay channel.
”It’s greed,” Kompela said. — Sapa