JOHANNESBURG – There seems no end to the impasse between the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the South African Football Association (SAFA).
The SABC has hit back at SAFA's claims that it made a "discourteous offer" offer for the rights to broadcast Bafana Bafana's games in South Africa. In a statement released on Thursday, Safa said: "SAFA rejected this offer outright, and places on record that the offer is so minuscule that it amounts to an effective no offer. It is interesting to note that even the apartheid run SABC of old made a better offer to the Association for their rights in this country.
Ön Friday morning the SABC responded with a statement which read: "The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has noted the statement by the South African Football Association (SAFA), announcing that all future international football matches involving the national teams, Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana will not be broadcast on SABC platforms.
"The SABC would like to place on record that it made a commercially viable offer that would enable the SABC to deliver football matches to South African audiences on SABC platforms and this offer was rejected by SAFA."
This follows the expiry of the previous contract between SAFA and the SABC. On the previous contract, there were obligations and milestones which the SABC has met, including the payment milestones of that contract, albeit late given the SABC’s dire financial situation. In this regard, the SABC made full and final payment on the agreement as agreed with SAFA.
The outstanding SAFA obligations due to SABC from the previous contract are the two remaining 2019 AFCON qualifier matches which are, the Bafana Bafana vs. Seychelles match on 13 October 2018 and the Bafana Bafana vs. Nigeria match on 17 November 2018. The Seychelles vs Bafana Bafana match scheduled for 16 October 2018 will be broadcast by the SABC since these rights do not reside with SAFA.
"With reference to SAFA allowing the SABC to broadcast the last AFCON qualifier match Bafana Bafana vs. Libya we contend that the broadcast of the match had nothing to do with a promise of a new agreement but was based on the payment milestone which the SABC has since met from the previous contract," the SABC statement continued.