HUNT IS A BAD LOSER WHO NEEDS NOT LOOK FAR

THE recent rant by SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt and his boss Jose Ferreira had me wondering.

Hunt and Ferreira believe that the R1 billion sponsorship to both Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates over the next five years is going to “kill competition” in the Premier Soccer League.

While the debate has a potential to take the emotive route – Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza has already told the pair where to get off – I would like to bring in a different view into the whole discussion.

Unfortunately I am not a numbers person but I think that crunching a few digits may help us view this issue in a different light.

But before we get there, let me remind you that Hunt won three league titles on the trot with United and nothing much has changed since then.

Hunt and Ferreira belong to a club owned by digital media company MultiChoice. This company is in the business of selling chiefly television and radio content to its customers via digital satellite television (DStv).

MultiChoice also own their own content developing houses, namely SuperSport and Magic Network (M-Net).

As at when this column was written, there were more than 3.6 million subscribers to DStv with almost half of those on the Premium package that costs one subscriber just over R600 a month.

These subscription numbers are said to have shot up when SuperSport, the channel, signed a broadcast deal with the PSL for the first time in 2006.

According to their annual report, MultiChoice raked in a cool R17.7 billion from all their businesses in the financial year ending 31 March 2011. That yielded a clean R3.4 billion profit.

BidVEST Wits owners, who are an international services, trading and distribution company with more than 100 000 employees, recorded more than R118 billion in revenue for their 2011 financial year. Their CEO Brian Joffe, earned a total of just over R27 million in the same period.

Financial interests of Patrice Motsepe, who owns Mamelodi Sundowns through his family Foundation, are well known.

These are the three clubs that I am aware of their beefy corporate ownership.

On the other hand, the PSL annual report for the same year shows a total revenue of R581 million and a paltry net profit of R3.6 million.

Most of the PSL’s income is derived from broadcast rights and sponsorships. Equally, the PSL churns out that money through equal grants to its affiliates and running costs for tournaments, including prize monies.

For the record, league winners pocket R10 million for the ten months’ worth of trouble.

The rest of the PSL clubs are owned by people who are successful entrepreneurs or run healthy family businesses.

We are often told that they are in it for the passion and not for the money.

Given the above figures, it is clear that owning and running a PSL outfit is more of a financial drain than gain.

Looking at these figures, which are just a scratch on the surface, Hunt and Ferreira might have to reconsider their stance on the debate.

Maybe we should be encouraging Khoza and Kaizer Motaung to ensure that they use the R100 million per season each to make sure that no other player from their teams die like Thabang Lebese.

Chiefs and Pirates, as well as football in general, certainly deserve the R1 billion.