Good times are set to roll for local football after the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) and Bangladesh-based Total Sports Marketing (TSM) signed a dream multi-million dollar media, sponsorship and commercial rights deal on Tuesday last week.
Brian Nkiwane
The mega deal brokered by Zifa boss Phillip Chiyangwa and signed by TSM chief executive officer Moinul Haque Chowdury, could see the football association netting around $40 to $100 million for hosting an intercontinental tournament for the next eight years.
The figures will however, depend on the number and class of the teams that will agree to participate in this competition, which will be dubbed the “Robert Mugabe Afro-Asia Intercontinental Football Tournament”. Former Sport minister David Coltart believes it will be a major breakthrough for Zimbabwean football if the deal comes to fruition.
“Everyone is waiting anxiously to see the first edition of the tournament. It’s good business, only if we start seeing the colour of the money. We all hope for change,” Coltart said. Former PSL boss Chris Sambo hailed Chiyangwa for securing such a deal, but called on Zifa to tread carefully.
“The figures are extremely big, but Zifa must be careful. If you remember, when we took part in the Medeca Cup, it was a multi-nation tournament, but it was the genesis of Asiagate. We might find ourselves being used by these betting Asian tigers. The figures are scaring me,” Sambo said.
Chiyangwa beat his chest when contacted to confirm the authenticity of the deal.
“What else do people want? This organisation [TSM] is not new to Zimbabwe sport. All we need to do is believe and move forward. Give this deal time and people will start believing,” Chiyangwa said. According to the contract obtained by Standardsport, Zifa has granted TSM all the commercial rights.
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“The two parties herein agree that the licensor (Zifa) grants to the licensee (TSM) all commercial rights including, but not limited to global media broadcast and distribution rights to retain all revenue from ticket sales and gatetakings and all sponsorship rights in respect of President Robert Mugabe Intercontinental Tournament or any other tournament referred to in this document and in return the licensee shall bear all costs of hosting, as well as bear the cost for the live production of the said tournament,” the agreement reads.
“Essentially, the Robert Mugabe tournament or any other tournament that the parties may agree upon shall be hosted at no cost to the licensor with the licensee responsible for all the costs as stated herein as the consideration for the commercial, ticketing, media and sponsorship rights granted to the licensee,” reads part of the contract.
“The licensee (TSM), therefore, has the obligation to fund all the start-up and operating costs associated with the hosting of the tournament.
“For the avoidance of doubt, all the details for hosting costs shall be contained in a separate annexure to the agreement whose contents were mutually agreed by the two parties. TSM will not bear any other cost not mentioned in the agreement.
“TSM shall annually dispatch sponsorship funds in the amount of $500 000 to Zifa for the sole purpose of establishing and operating a youth football academy which will be jointly managed by the two parties through a trust.”
The first year’s contribution will be made available after the completion of the 2016 tournament and the funds will be dispatched in six equal installments to Zifa over a period of 12 months. This payment schedule will continue in the following years, with the first installment payable within 30 days of the last day of the first tournament and the rest of the installments paid after every 60 days. “TSM shall annually deposit sponsorship funds amounting to $500 000 into the Zifa account, for meeting the running costs exclusively for the benefit of the national senior men’s football team; the payment schedule shall be as follows:
“First installment shall be $100 000 payable one month prior to the 2016 tournament and the second installment of $400 000 shall be paid within 30 days of the last day of the first tournament. “TSM undertakes to pay royalty fees for hosting rights in the amount of $500 000 yearly to Zifa for the entire duration of the tournament, by depositing the royalty fee within 30 days of completion of each year’s tournament.
“TSM shall pay a hosting fee in the amount of $200 000 whenever, Zimbabwe hosts the tournament which will be deposited 30 days prior to the start of the tournament.
“Zifa shall do everything to make sure the tournament is hosted successfully and gets all the required clearances. The association also has the obligation to secure participation of senior national teams in the tournaments where the minimum teams shall be eight and maximum of 16 plus officials and dignitaries for the tournament.”
The preferred African teams include hosts Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Tunisia and Egypt, while Asia and other continents will bring countries like China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Russia, Thailand, Iran, UAE and Qatar, provided TSM meets their financial expectations for participating in the tournament.’
The contract states that the prize money and appearance fees for the participating teams in the first year shall be as follows: $300 000 prize money for the first year and $500 000 prize money for each of the subsequent tournament(s). Appearance fees for all the participating teams in total for the first year’s tournament will be $700 000 and $1 000 000 for all the participating teams in total for each of the subsequent tournament(s).
“For the avoidance of doubt, the final cost of $1 million in total for prize money and appearance fees together and also $1,5 million in total for prize money and appearance fees together for each of the subsequent tournament(s), can be reviewed by TSM in the exercise of its unlimited discretion to ensure the successful hosting of the tournament,” the contract reads.
