SABC confirm TV blackout for Bafana vs Sao Tome
"Right now we have jobs at risk at the SABC and we can't afford to be handing out huge amounts of money for a single match,” said MD at SABC Sports Gary Rathbone.
Percy Tau, seen here battling Sao Tomew on Friday in Durban. That home game was televised by SABC, but the return match on Monday in PE will not be shown after the national broadcaster refused to pay for the rights. Pic: Steve Haag Sports/Backpagepix
Bafana Bafana’s 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sao Tome on Monday will not be shown on television in Mzansi, because of what the South African Football Association have labelled a “ridiculous” amount of money demanded by the Confederation of African Football for the rights to show the match.
Even though the game is at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, this is classified as an “away” game, with the islanders agreeing to play the Group C qualifier on South African shores, to avoid travel complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
As such, the South African Football Association do not own the rights to the game, and Caf came with an offer that was not acceptable to the SABC, according to MD of SABC Sports, Garty Rathbone.
“Caf wanted to fleece us for a huge amount of money we can’t afford to spend,” Rathbone told Phakaaathi on Monday.
“We are busy with a Section 189 process,” added Rathbone, with the SABC reported as pushing forward with a swathe of retrenchments.
“The game was originally offered through Safa as host broadcasters, but then Caf stepped in and said ‘you can’t do that because the rights belong to Caf, and here is a huge fee you need to pay to get the game.’ Every time they (Caf) whack us and money pours out, this time we had to say ‘sorry, the money is no longer pouring out’.
“It was a ridiculous number (they asked for), considering the game is happening here and we were prepared to be the host broadcaster. Right now we have jobs at risk at the SABC and we can’t afford to be handing out huge amounts of money for a single match.”
The SABC have agreed the radio rights for the match with Caf, and will be broadcasting the game on all their radio stations. Kick off is 3pm.
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