We’ll resolve impasse with SABC – Safa

The South African Football Association (Safa) has apologised to South Africans and the “football-loving public for the fact that the SABC failed to broadcast” the Bafana Bafana vs Nigeria African Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier on Saturday afternoon.

Safa had taken the initiative to seek a resolution to the impasse between itself and the public broadcaster as early as the first week of November, the football body has said in a statement.

Safa said it had made the SABC an offer to broadcast the Bafana Bafana vs Nigeria Afcon qualifier and the Nelson Mandela Challenge vs Paraguay on Tuesday by attempting to conclude a matchby-match agreement with the SABC.

“In this instance, Safa offered the matches to the SABC for a rights fee of R10 million. The SABC declined this offer,” the statement said.

Safa then reduced its rights fee request from the original R10 million to R7.5 million. Again the SABC declined. On Saturday discussions continued and the SABC indicated it wanted to broadcast the match, but it did not have the funds available.

Safa again conceded to the SABC that it was willing to negotiate a payment plan in the interest of ensuring that the nation would be able to watch the match.

“However, the SABC failed to produce this request in writing. Later on Saturday, prior to the match, approaches were again made via the Ministry of Communications requesting Safa to allow the SABC to broadcast the match, and that operationally the parties would resolve the payment structure post the match. Again Safa agreed to this process, and immediately authorised CAF/Supersport to release the feed to the SABC.

“To Safa’s surprise it noted that the match was not being broadcast on the SABC platform. [...] However, Safa has done everything humanly possible to afford the SABC the opportunity to broadcast the match on its platforms,” the Safa statement said.

In a statement later on Saturday night, the SABC said it would like to place on record that it made a commercially viable offer that would enable it to deliver football matches to South African audiences on SABC platforms and this offer was rejected by Safa.

“It is unfortunate that the SABC and Safa legal dispute is in the public domain, but the SABC remains committed to engaging Safa on fair terms,” spokesperson Neo Momodu said.

“This [the disagreement] followed the expiry of the previous contract between Safa and the SABC.

“The high cost of sports rights coupled with low revenues has played a critical role in the solvency of the corporation,” Momodu said. – ANA