Safa not amused by SABC's decision to broadcast Bafana match ‘delayed live’

The South African Football Association (Safa) will make known to the SABC that they are “not happy” that Bafana Bafana’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying win against Nigeria was not screened live‚ CEO Dennis Mumble said on Wednesday.

One of Bafana’s biggest victories – 2-0 in Uyo on June 10‚ their first win in a competitive match against the Super Eagles – was aired ‘delayed live’ by on SABC1 at 8pm SA time.

The game‚ which kicked off at 6pm SA time‚ was broadcast live on pay-channel SuperSport.

Even more farcically‚ on top of broadcasting the game late‚ the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) even had analysts discussing the delayed-live game to be aired‚ and predicting scores.

“I can tell you that we’re not happy that the SABC saw it fit not to air Bafana Bafana live‚” Mumble said.

“You’ve seen the statistics here today about the standing of Bafana Bafana in South African society. There is no sports team in this country with as big a following as Bafana.

“And for the SABC to do something like that is really not acceptable.”

Mumble quite hastily added about Safa’s broadcast rights partner: “But we also understand to a great extent what it is in terms of the challenges the SABC is facing right now.

“And so‚ yes we can say we are not happy. Because the nation deserves to have Bafana live. And we are going to insist that going forward this must happen.

“We are making arrangements now to even try and see whether (SA’s) Cosafa Cup matches can be broadcast on the SABC.

“We’re going to push that – it’s probably too late for this year but from next year we’re going to push that.

“The audience of Bafana is greater than the following of the other major sports combined.

“We can’t deprive the South African public of that‚ and so we’ll do something.”

Mumble said that to his knowledge the issue for the SABC revolved around the cost of having to purchase the rights from the foreign broadcaster to air the match live.

Statistics produced by the David Sidenberg‚ CEO of research company BMi Sport Info‚ showed that even the delayed-live broadcast by the SABC had a viewership of 2‚28 million.

The 2-1 friendly defeat against Zambia the following Tuesday night‚ broadcast live on SABC‚ attracted 5 million viewers‚ Sidenberg said‚ an indication of how large the numbers could have been had a big game like the Nigeria qualifier on a Saturday been live.

“I guess one of the saddest things for me was to see that victory against Nigeria that we’ve wanted for so long‚ away from home‚ and to know that the majority of South Africans who would follow it on SABC weren’t able to‚” Sidenberg said.

SABC have sublicensed the rights to broadcast Bafana games from the consortium that owns the rights‚ Siyaya TV.

“We have a three-year deal with SABC‚ which is up for negotiations on the new cycle in about six to eight months.

"We are certainly not going to deprive the SABC of Bafana games‚” Mumble said.

- TimesLIVE