The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has denied Swallows FC a potentially lucrative sponsorship deal with one of the major telecommunications companies.
Swallows FC invited the media to a press conference on April 22 where they were going to unveil Telkom as their major backer.
The conference was cancelled at the 11th hour. The Sunday Times has learnt that the PSL sees the sponsorship as in conflict with the agreements the league has with two of its major sponsors, MultiChoice and MTN, who are also in the telecommunications business.
The PSL believes the potential sponsorship is in conflict with its major sponsors.
In a nine-page letter seen by the Sunday Times, the PSL's acting CEO Mato Madlala wrote to Swallows FC chairperson David Mogashoa on Wednesday, the PSL says "the Swallows/Telkom Sponsorship is in conflict with the rights granted by the NSL [National Soccer League] in pre-existing agreements with MultiChoice and MTN concerning the DStv Premiership, MTN Top 8 and the MultiChoice Diski Shield/Challenge".
Asked to respond on the stalled Swallows deal with Telkom, Madlala referred all the questions to Mogashoa.
"At this point in time I have no comment on this matter," said Madlala yesterday morning, adding that"there will come a time when the PSL will come out to say something on this."
Mogashoa, who telephoned the Sunday Times yesterday morning after being instructed by Madlala to do so, said he believed the PSL executive will sit in the coming days and there was still hope on his part that of Telkom that the sponsorship will be approved.
That hope is, however, in contrast with what Madlala, in no uncertain terms, wrote in the letter she sent to him this week.
"Based on the above considerations, we trust your understanding that the NSL has to reject the approval of the Swallows/Telkom [deal] in order to protect the integrity and alleviate a conflict in the spirit of selling implemented by the NSL," Madlala wrote in her closing remarks to Mogashoa.
In defending the deals that Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have with Vodafone, Madlala wrote to Mogashoa that only sponsorship deals that were already in place when the league clinched deals with MultiChoice and MTN "are excluded from the exclusivity granted to the league sponsors.
"In the relevant ICT and mobile-phone categories, such exception applies, for instance, to the club sponsorship arrangements of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates with Vodafone," she wrote.
A source representing Telkom as its PR agency on the deal, who refused to have their name and company revealed, said as far as they know the Swallows/Telkom (deal) was still subject to PSL approval.
"The negotiations still remain with the PSL and Swallows and therefore Telkom have nothing further to comment on the matter," she said yesterday.
Swallows are back in the top flight of SA football after battling for five years in the wilderness.
The Sunday Times has learned that the club is struggling financially and after surprising all and sundry by remaining in the top eight all season, it was hoped that securing the Telkom sponsorship will help the club get stronger next season.
Telkom was the sponsor of the Telkom Knockout in the PSL since 2006-07 but it ended that partnership with the league at the beginning of the current campaign.
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