By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation will show the Caf Champions League final between Kaizer Chiefs and Al Ahly live on television, after a deal was struck between them and rights holders SuperSport late on Friday.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, after the government intervened to broker a deal between the two parties.
“I would like to thank both the SABC and Multichoice for reaching a solution that will benefit millions of soccer-loving South Africans,” said Abrahams in a statement.
“Sport plays an instrumental role in national building and social cohesion. It is for this reason that I welcome the agreement between the two organisations. The people of our country will now be able to watch this crucial game on a free-to-air platform. This is particularly important as our country is going through a difficult time.”
Earlier on Friday, the SABC issued a scathing statement condemning both the Confederation of African Football and SuperSport, who they implied had bought the free-to-air rights in a deliberate attempt to stop them from broadcasting the match.
“It simply cannot be in the public interest for CAF and SuperSport to contractually exclude millions of non-pay-tv subscribers from watching this game. Furthermore, it is disreputable for a pay-tv broadcaster to acquire free-to-air rights with the intention of blocking free-to-air broadcasters from using those rights, “read a part of the statement.
“The failure of Icasa’s Sports Rights regulations to deal with this situation means the public broadcaster has no recourse to the regulator, even though broadcasting the Caf Champions League final – involving one of SA’s biggest clubs – is clearly part of SABC’s public mandate.
“This is a very sad day for Kaizer Chiefs fans and all football lovers in South Africa when Caf‚ the custodian of the people’s game on the African continent‚ agrees to exclude millions of people who cannot afford pay-TV.
“Despite this unfortunate outcome‚ the SABC remains committed to bringing big sporting events to all South Africans, concluded the earlier statement.”