Local giant media houses have urged new Football Association of Malawi (Fam) leadership to properly scrutinise broadcasting rights, including Mpira Television concept, to level the playing field.
The development comes a few days after Fleetwood Haiya was elected Fam president, defeating Walter Nyamilandu, who had been at the helm of the association for 19 years. B
efore his election as Fam president, Haiya had on several occasions questioned the Television and Digital Broadcasting Rights model.
Two big TV stations, namely Times TV and Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) said the new Fam leadership should review the TV deal.
The stations’ remarks are similar to concerns which Super League teams raised midway the 2023 season.
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They feel the system lacks transparency in the bidding process and generated revenue. MBC Director General George Kasakula said there are several grey areas in the current deal.
“The new leadership at Fam should take a hard look at the whole issue of broadcasting rights, including Flames games, to level the playing field. The whole concept of Mpira TV should also be revisited.
“There are a lot of grey areas that still persist and no one was willing to explain or change certain things at Fam,” Kasakula said.
Times TV Station Manager Wonder Msiska said the company expects sober dialogue around football rights in the best interest of the game.
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“We want to promote the beautiful game of football while growing its revenue. We must understand the Malawi market and its consumer behaviour before we start applying foreign theories from bigger and established markets. There is money in football we must all (stakeholders) grow slowly to reach the pinnacle in both good broadcasting and revenue,” Msiska said.
However, Haiya was not readily available for comment yesterday.
In May this year, Haiya said the deal should be reviewed to build a model that is transparent to ensure that it maximises gains for clubs as opposed to benefitting other third parties.
Under his predecessor, last year, Fam awarded a contract to Mibawa Studios as content producers for live football matches for all domestic matches including the TNM Super League.
Mibawa Chief Executive Officer John Nthakomwa said the company signed a contract with Fam as a content producer.
“We do not own the football rights. But we have three years remaining on our contract with Fam,” he said.
Since last year, the matches have been beamed on Mpira TV.
In addition, domestic matches are also beamed on Fifa+ TV channel.
Last season, according to Fam, the TV deal grossed K123 million in broadcasting rights of which K61.1 million was total expenses whereas K21.1 million was the net revenue.
Meanwhile, Haiya is expected to meet Fifa president Gianni Infantino in Saudi Arabia.
Haiya is set to leave today for Saudi Arabia. This will be his first official trip abroad as Fam president While in Saudi Arabia, he is expected to attend the Fifa summit and the World Club Championship.
He will be accompanied by Fam General Secretary Alfred Gunda. The two are expected to return on Saturday.
Sports analyst George Kaudza-Masina, who once served as Fam General Secretary, said the trip to Saudi Arabia is very crucial.
“When you have been appointed to a serious position like that of an FA president, it is important to make courtesy visits to the people who matter. And that Fifa president has Haiya for a meeting, this symbolises a vote of confidence and being welcomed to the larger football community which is a plus to Haiya,” Kaudza-Masina said.
In September, some TNM Super League teams asked Fam to reveal details of the deal it signed with Fifa+ for live streaming of domestic matches.
They faulted Fam for concealing details of the deal although the project started last year.
In 2021, MBC obtained an injunction restraining the association from proceeding with the process.
The injunction stopped Mpira TV from beaming Malawi’s World Cup qualifier against Cameroon at Orlando Stadium in South Africa.
