The South African Football Association (Safa) is adamant that it did not need the permission of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to secure sponsorship with OUTsurance.
After Safa announced a R50m deal with the insurance company on Tuesday, the PSL acting CEO Mato Madlala sent a letter to Pinky Lehoko, Safa's acting CEO, purporting that the PSL sponsors, primarily its principal sponsor Absa, were unhappy with Safa's arrangement with the insurer company.
The five-year deal entails referees wearing apparel branded in OUTsurance colours. Referees fall under the ambit of Safa, the football controlling body in the country. Safa provides match officials to the PSL, who are the special members of Safa and run the professional league.
CANCELLATION OF FIXTURES
There was talk that Absa's unhappiness could lead to the cancellation of yesterday's and today's fixtures. But the matches continued with the whistlemen clad in the green and purple corporate colours of the new sponsor. The PSL's bone of contention with Safa's sponsorship was that OUTsurance was going to gain from what they consider "ambush marketing".
Yesterday PSL legal counsel Michael Murphy said:"Our role is to ensure there is no ambush marketing. If you were Absa and they are putting up all this money and someone comes along and says for 10c, rather than fund the league, I'll pay Safa and I'd get just the same coverage.
"The league has had meetings with Safa to highlight that in effect this is ambush marketing. It is wrong and we believe that it places football sponsorship at risk."
But Safa's acting president Gay Mokoena sings a different tune.
"The PSL raised the issue of the same sponsorship being in the same financial services sector. We think it is possible that the sponsorship is not clashing.
"Yesterday [Friday] I met the chairman [Khoza] and he raised concerns about OUTsurance. We agreed that from our side we have signed an agreement and that agreement is binding and will apply to all the matches under the Safa auspices. The best I can tell you is that we will be discussing this thing further in the coming days."
Asked if he foresaw the matter going the legal route, a laughing Mokoena said: "I hope not. But we will cross that bridge when we get to it." Mokoena and vice-president Ria Ledwaba met the PSL in Sandton on Friday. The PSL delegation was led by its chairman Irvin Khoza, Peter Mancer and Murphy.
In the letter Murphy sent to the league's member clubs he wrote: "The chairman of the league stressed the risks of the arrangement. The meeting ended on the basis that the chairman would communicate with the president of Safa, Dr Danny Jordaan, by telephone. However, soon after the meeting the statement which is attached appeared as a press release, and has now been placed on the Safa website."
That Safa statement in part states: "We understand that the league appears to be complaining that the rights of OUTsurance are in conflict with the rights of Nedbank and Absa, who are sponsors of the league.
"This is absurd and nonsensical, to say the least.
"Some of the clubs in the league have obtained sponsors such as Bidvest, Hollard and Standard Bank. Surely, if it is alleged that there is a conflict between OUTsurance (Safa's sponsor) and Absa Bank and Nedbank, then there is equally, or may we say, a greater conflict between the clubs sponsors, Bidvest, Hollard and Standard Bank, on the one hand and Absa Bank and Standard Bank on the other hand."
Madlala's letter to Lehoko on Wednesday reads: "It is crucial that the League be fully informed, urgently, whether it is intended that the relationship will in any way impact upon the Absa Premiership or any other League sponsor. If it is intended that league matches will be impacted we will need to have sight of the kit and other paraphernalia that Safa wishes match officials to wear.
"Already concerns have been raised by sponsors of the league and these matters can only be addressed with full knowledge of the facts. Shortly after we spoke, the chairman of the league, Dr Irvin Khoza called vice-president Ria Ledwaba to seek clarity but she is not presently available.
"The league will do everything it can to assist in this matter but we cannot contribute meaningfully until we are in possession of the facts. An urgent executive committee meeting has been called for tomorrow at 11h00 in view of the urgency and importance of this matter."..