Thirteen of the 14 clubs taking part in the Mainland Premier League have supported a sponsorship deal the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has entered into with Azam Media.
Tanzania Football Federation
They have also asked Young Africans to refrain from uttering lame excuses in rejecting the five-year contract which gives Azam Tv exclusive rights to beam live the Vodacom Premier League matches.
The 13 clubs are Simba SC, Azam FC, Ashanti United, JKT Ruvu, Ruvu Shooting Stars, Mgambo JKT, JKT Oljoro, Rhino Rangers, Mbeya City, Tanzania Prisons, Mtibwa Sugar, Coastal Union and Kagera Sugar.
They said in a joint communiqué issued in Dar es Salaam they fully support the deal and Yanga must scribe to collective responsibility.
‘We want to remind Tanzanian soccer fans that premiership clubs have for a very long time suffered due to lack of sponsorship but now there are good signs that God has heeded our outcry,” the communiqué read.
The so-called ‘Coalition of 13’ noted that in neighbouring Kenya, for example, each premiership club gets 7 million Kenyan shillings (approximately 125m/-) annually from television rights and Tusker Premium Lager sponsorship – an amount that makes the Kenyan league equally competitive.
“Today, we’re proud to have overtaken Kenya as far as sponsorship is concerned. Each club gets 170m/- per annum (100m/- from Azam Media and 70m/- from Vodacom),” the communiqué added.
“SuperSport, who some of us prefer, sponsor the Ugandan league for $350,000, which is far less than the $1m/- offered by Azam Media. We hope that Azam’s sponsorship will make the Mainland Premier League the best in East Africa and will help us mould a better national football team.”
The coalition said Yanga have misled the public by saying the Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB) wrongly entered into a contract with Azam Media allegedly because they do not have the mandate.
“FIFA, CAF and TFF statutes stipulate that television rights are under the national FA and in this case TFF delegated its powers to TPLB which worked closely with all the 14 premiership teams, including Yanga, in selecting the best bidder,” the communiqué read.
“The contract was finally signed by TFF after it was assured by TPLB that the venting process followed the proper procedure,” it added. “It’s also not true that TPLB doesn’t have a member from Yanga.
Seif Ahmed, popularly known as Seif Magari, is a member and if he did not attend the venting sessions he should be queried by Yanga. “It should also be known that TPLB opened its doors to all 14 clubs to participate in the process and Yanga were represented by their vice-chairman Clement Sanga and secretary general Lawrence Mwalusako.”
The coalition further noted Yanga erred when they said nowhere in the world is a company that owns a team is allowed to sponsor that particular league of given television rights. “It seems Yanga didn’t make a research.
In South Africa there is a team called Super- Sport which participates in the premier league that is also sponsored by SuperSport television,” the communiqué said. “The same happens in Kenya were Tusker FC are in the premier league whose main sponsor is Tusker Premium Lager.”
Source Tanzania Daily News
