Broadcasters hit back at sulom

Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) have denied owing the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) K24 million in broadcasting rights.

The broadcasters have said this in reaction to Sulom’s remarks at its recent annual general meeting (AGM) in Blantyre that the top-flight league runners have been struggling to disburse clubs’ broadcasting rights shares partly because some media houses owe them K29 million with MBC and ZBS being the biggest defaulters on K17 million and K7 million, respectively.

In the absence of gate revenue from matches due to recent Covid-19 restrictions, broadcasting rights revenue was the expected alternative source  of funds for Sulom and clubs.

MBC director general George Kasakula said while his media organisation owes Sulom some money, it is much less than what was stated at the AGM.

“Yes it [the debt] is there from way back, but we already started paying it off and at present it has been reduced to K7 million. It is now a priority to square it off. Otherwise, we are now paying upfront to avoid incurring the debts again,” he said.

However, Kasakula  faulted Sulom for what he described as laxity as regards  paying attention to debts that the media house owes the top-flight league runners.

He said: “It is high time Sulom started paying attention to debts and collecting them in good time. The debts we are paying now are from five years ago. We do not want to be used as a scapegoat for the mismanagement of TV rights over the years with teams benefitting nothing.”

ZBS deputy marketing director Emmanuel Maliro said Zodiak, being the media house that advocated for broadcasting rights, cannot owe  Sulom up to K7 million.

“If we owe Sulom any money, then it should be invoices within 30 days, which can only be in the ranges of K1 million. Otherwise, Sulom is so strict and hard on the collection of football rights payments that it does not allow any overflow of debt,” he said.

Sulom general secretary Williams Banda said he could not comment on the matter until the top-flight league runners’ financial report is finally presented.

The presentation of the report was initially scheduled to be done during Sulom’s AGM over a week ago, but was postponed to yesterday after clubs rejected it, saying they were not given ample time to scrutinise the statement.

By press time at 5pm yesterday, details regarding Sulom and clubs’ purported meeting on the financial report were not available.

Clubs say they hope Sulom will stick to their latest plan of collecting broadcasting rights revenue in advance.

“Our position is that payment of broadcasting rights should be done in advance. In the worst case scenario, we would love to see the rights holders acting transparently with us,” said Nyasa Big Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga.