A lot has been said about DSTV sponsoring the Premier Soccer Leagues (PSL) flagship competition, the Premiership. The PSL is a fantastic organisation that has built an incredibly powerful set of assets and properties. At the time when everywhere you look both here and across the oceans, sponsors are pulling out and pulling back as the come to terms with the devastating impact of COVID-19. To, therefore, have all your partners remain steadfast and even manage to get new ones is a sign of strength and the PSL must be applauded for that.
There is no doubt that sport faces a really tough time over the next couple of years, in fact, a week ago FIFA President Gianni Infantino pronounced that world football will take a $14 billion hit globally as a result of Covid-19. That came just about the same time European Clubs Association (ECA) President Andrea Agnelli announced that European Clubs alone have a $4 billion hole they will need to fill over the next two years. What this means is that on the whole, the game is going to battle to make up the impact of COVID-19. This certainly is true for the PSL and its clubs. So as we analyse the decisions of the league we must be conscious of the unprecedented conditions under which the league operates.
All of that said, however, one must ponder the long term consequences of this decision. It seems to me that governance will become far more important than it has ever been. You now have a group whose subsidiary is the anchor broadcaster, an anchor sponsor and is participant and shareholder of the league through its club and thought its employee (Stan Mathews) also has a seat in the league all-powerful executive committee. So you have a league sponsor and broadcaster that has a direct impact on how the league itself is run. The next time the chairmanship of the league becomes available, ceteris paribus, you could well have a single group being a sponsor (DSTV), a broadcaster (Supersport) and competitor and shareholder (Supersport United) and Chairman and leader of the league ie. Football Director Stanley Mathews, who genuinely has as good a chance as anybody. Imagine.
So this scenario presents several serious challenges. Firstly, leadership and governance. There is no reason or any evidence to suggest any mischief of any kind on how this has panned out but some of us have always argued that the PSL needs a stronger separation between the ownership group and the day to day operational executive function. Part of this is to free the organisation to not only be independent but to also look and feel independent from the influence of club officials. Imagine a scenario where the league has to deal with an issue that affects Supersport United FC in this current scenario. It just puts the league and its executives in a really difficult position. It will always feel like they are too lenient because Supersport United holds the purse strings or they are too harsh. After all, they are trying over-compensating. Still on this issue, imagine a PSL Executive Committee, the most powerful body between Board of Governors meetings, and Stan Mathews has a legitimate difference with his colleagues that he genuinely won’t back down on, other members start wondering if this Stan Mathews just arguing for his club and the good of the league or his employers who happened to contribute 70% to the league revenue. It compromises the responsibilities of his colleagues not by design or by intention but by the nature of the relationship.
Secondly, the interest of the game. As the season starts the league makes the fixtures and then goes into a scheduling process with broadcasters and the sponsors. Imagine that for legitimate commercial, operational and consumer reasons the DSTV or Supersport wants a match schedule that has games on Monday and Thursday to the schedule that already has Tuesday, Wednesday and weekend. Considering the interest of the SABC that we know does weekend games, this suddenly looks like an anti-competitive move. Again there is no suggestion whatsoever that any of this will happen but it serves to illustrate what a tight rope the league and its partners have to navigate going forward. The integrity and independence of the game is at the heart of its intrigues and interest.
Finally, risk management. At the heart of the role of any director and key officers in any business is managing the risk to the enterprise. A couple of months ago I wrote on this platform as we were coming to terms with the impact of the contribution of broadcast income is major to the league. You simply have to look at the global sports rights and broadcast arrangements to realise that like everyone, broadcasters are hard hit and are looking to reduce commitments and not paying etc. You now have the PSL at least 70% reliant on the Multichoice Group for its income. It must keep the head honcho’s at Parktown awake all night. The broadcast landscape is one of the most disruption threatened industries. Anything that changes the fortunes of the Multichoice is fatal for the league. For, unlikely as that may be, such an occurrence will not just threaten its broadcaster and sponsor but a shareholder, in Supersport, and thus the league as a whole.
So while we must again be in awe of the PSL ability to continue to deliver value to its commercial partners perhaps now more than ever before the league owners must realise the significance of having a strong leadership of the league that is not just seen but it is actually separated from the ownership club officials. Because the next time the club chairperson could be the sponsor and broadcaster and you really do not want that mess. It is possible, to have a truly independent league, where the ownership group provides oversight but the day-to-day responsibilities sit with an independent competent full-time executive team and not part-time club officials.
All the major leagues are run by like this and the American sports with their commissioners, the Premier League, the Bundesliga and La Liga to mention a few, have provided a blueprint on how to run a league that cannot be accused of being controlled by certain officials and whose governance structure could not be questioned.
