Blackout for Bafana and Banyana Afcon matches

The SA Football Association (Safa) and the SABC confirmed on Wednesday that the Bafana and Banyana matches against Nigeria this weekend will not be broadcast by the national broadcaster after the latest negotiations reached a deadlock.

Football-mad South Africans will once again face a national team blackout on the public broadcaster when Bafana take on Nigeria in an Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier and Banyana’s Afcon opening match on Sunday also against the West Africans.

“The SABC and Safa have reached a deadlock in negotiations on the coverage of Bafana’s home matches‚” said SABC spokesperson Neo Momodu on Wednesday.

Safa acting CEO Russell Paul revealed that the two parties met two weeks ago in a fresh bid to look at ways to work with each other but nothing came out of the meeting.

Paul said Safa tried to come up with a pay-as-you-go arrangement with the SABC but the proposal fell through.

Kickoff for the Bafana match is at 3pm on Saturday on two pay-TV SuperSport channels SS4 and SS10.

Banyana play their Nigerian counterparts a day later in the Ghana fishing port city of Cape Coast (5.15pm).

The women’s tournament will be staged in Ghana from November 17 to December 1.

The annual Nelson Mandela Challenge match against Paraguay on Tuesday in Durban will also not be televised live on SABC platforms.

SABC and Safa are at loggerheads because of monetary valuation of broadcast rights to national teams’ home matches.

The SABC has been paying Safa R110m for the broadcast rights but the cash-strapped public broadcaster offered just R10m for the same rights for a new deal after the initial contract expired in April

R10m is what the SABC offered Safa to broadcast Bafana matches, but the football body want closer to R110