FAM and Sulom have contradicted on the amount of money the association transferred to the TNM Super League-runners as Mpira Television (TV) broadcasting rights revenue remittances.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) general secretary Alfred Gunda stated in a statement on Monday that football governing body has paid Sulom K21.5 million as the last remittance after making an initial K34.4 million payment in September last year, but Super League of Malawi (Sulom) treasurer Malinda Chinyama yesterday claimed they only got K17 million and K16 million.

Action during last season’s
TNM Super League

Going by the disbursements statements, FAM has transferred a total of K55.9 million to Sulom, whose account details show a receipt of K33 million, leaving a K22.9 million deficit.

Said Chinyama: “The latest chunk we have received from FAM is K17 million and not the K21 million which they announced.

“Similarly, in September, we got K16 million and I wonder where the K34.4 million is coming from.

“As Sulom treasurer, I am yet to be schooled on what is happening because what the deposit slips are showing differ from what is being announced to the public. Maybe there are other channels, where the other payments were being paid through.”

But Gunda explained in a statement on Monday: “In total, FAM has paid K55.9 million to Sulom. This means Mpira TV does not owe Sulom and clubs any balances for the 2022 season.”

He said of the total amount, the 16 TNM Super League teams that participated in the 2022 season will share K49.5 million while Sulom will keep K6.2 million. FAM also got K6.2 million as its 10-percent share from the K62 million total revenue.

“We are delighted that finally we have made the payment to the clubs. This is timely as the funds will help them prepare for the new season,” said Gunda.

“We made great strides in 2022 as Mpira TV made K123 million gross revenue, which represented 473 percent increase from the K26 million realised in the year prior.”

He said in 2023 they will focus on consolidating the gains achieved.

“Mpira TV will be on many profitable platforms and broadcast more live matches through additional dedicated outside broadcast [OB] vans, covering South, Central and Northern regions. It will offer more inclusive and exciting programming,” explained Gunda.

But in an interview yesterday, FAM marketing and broadcasting manager Tulipo Mwenelupembe insisted they paid Sulom the whole amount as earlier announced by the association.

For the latest remittance, he said they paid Sulom K17.5 million by cheque and the other K4 million was a direct transfer to the league runners’ bank account.

As for the previous payment, Mwenelupembe explained that they paid K16.4 million and that the other K33.5 million was already collected from the broadcasters that dealt directly with Sulom.

“For the latest remittance, we have paid Sulom a total of K21.5 million instead of K23.1 million because we already paid them K4.5 million,” he said.

Sulom president Tiya Somba-Banda yesterday concurred with Mwenelupembe that FAM paid the sum, but said the confusion might have been deliberately created due to the forthcoming Sulom elections on February 25.

“The Sulom treasurer is already aware of all the transfers that FAM made. It is just unfortunate that the issue is somehow being deliberately twisted,” he said. In spite of that, Chinyama claimed he was still unaware of all the transactions and he described FAM’s payment arrangement of the rights dues as “awkward.”

The post Confusion over TV rights dues first appeared on The Nation Online.

The post  Confusion over TV rights dues appeared first on The Nation Online.