Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane is worried the African Nations Cup qualifier may not be televised in SA this afternoon.
|||Bafana Bafana’s coach and captain yesterday expressed their dismay that fans at home are unlikely to be able to watch South Africa’s 2012 African Nations Cup qualifier against Niger this afternoon.
The SABC this week announced that they had reached a “deadlock” in negotiations with French sports rights marketing company SportFive over the R5 million they are demanding for the right to broadcast the game in South Africa.
SportFive do have a production crew in Niamey preparing to show the game, but the indications yesterday were that the game would not be broadcast in South Africa.
This would be the second game in qualifying that the South African public had not seen, though the qualifier last October in Freetown against Sierra Leone was not shown due to a production issue, rather than the cost of broadcast rights.
“It’s not nice, my family is calling me, saying ‘we don’t see the match’,” said Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane yesterday.
“It also affects me as a person, with a family that follows Bafana.
“But these matters are beyond the technical team. You can’t do anything.
“Television is controlling football. It is business. Why is there over R2 billion in the PSL?
“I don’t know how Niger can get (to show) the game and we can’t. Are you telling me Niger can afford it where we can’t? Let’s be honest I saw one channel of Nigerienne television so I don’t know what happened.”
Bafana captain Simphiwe Tshabalala added his hope that a deal could be struck before today’s kick- off. “I just hope they are going to resolve everything,” he said.
“It will be better knowing that our fans are watching and will be with us in spirit.
“If they don’t show the game, we will be disappointed, but we will just play for them.” - Sunday Independent
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/anger-over-bafana-tv-coverage-saga-1.1130779
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