Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie and the South African Football Association (Safa) are facing the firing line after forging ahead with the implementation of VAR and excluding the main role players, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and its broadcast rights holders SuperSport.
Last weekend, McKenzie sent a Safa project team led by former referee Daniel Bennett to Spain to engage prospective service-providers on a fact-finding mission, leaving the PSL and its TV partners, SuperSport, out in the cold.
The PSL, which will be the foremost consumers of the VAR services, and SuperSport, the chief broadcasters of all PSL matches, will have to work hand in hand with VAR teams.
This was the main bone of contention when Safa appeared before the portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture this week. MPs, including the EFF’s Eugene Mthethwa , ANC’s Faith Muthambi and Gaolatlhe Kgabo tore into the Safa delegates, and asked them how a tender for VAR could be issued without the input of PSL, the main role players and consumers of video refereeing services.
Said an anonymous member of the Safa NEC: “The PSL and SuperSport needed to be part of the project from the beginning. Safa’s head of referees Abdul Ebrahim and his team are way ahead of everyone – they left out the PSL, who will be the consumers of the final
product.
They also did not include the league’s broadcasters, SuperSport, who will be playing a crucial role during the matches. It could be a big problem if the broadcasters and the coming VAR do not correspond.”
A retired Fifa referee has revealed that VAR technology works in collaboration with broadcasters.
“SuperSport, with their outside broadcast van, will give VAR the feed we see on TV when they play slow motions. The two will have to work together, and it is surprising why the pay channel is not part of the project,” said the former referee.
PSL chairman Irvin Khoza mentioned that the PSL had not been consulted in the process and said he could only answer questions once there were proper engagements.
“Where we are now as the league, it is difficult to make a contribution in this meeting,” Khoza told the portfolio chairperson and MP Joseph McGluwa.
“We thought it was going to be fair that we come here in one voice with the national association, and there are outstanding meetings with the minister. Last year, minister McKenzie gave us the good news, and I shared with the executive committee that money would be made available to implement VAR.
In essence, Khoza said the PSL supports the implementation of VAR, but he wanted to err on the side of caution regarding the technology roll-out.
“Whether the funding is going to be there going into the future, we are not sure. But more importantly, at this point, we are not sure what the incidental expenses are that go with VAR. I thought it was important to engage on these matters with our mother association and the minister for clarity.
At the moment, we will be shooting in the dark and talking past each other.
“We have chronological processes we have followed in making sure VAR becomes a reality. But more importantly, what makes us uncomfortable is that our funding model is sensitive.
Now we are funded by broadcast rights, which are owned by a new company [Canal+], which has bought PSL rights-holders, and we still need to understand how they operate.”
Ebrahim said they were yet to engage the PSL with regards to the whole project and the teams’ fact-finding mission in Spain.
“They [PSL] is an important stakeholder in this because VAR needs to be implemented in the PSL,” said Ebrahim after he was bombarded with questions.
“They will have to be engaged, and we have to get the buy-in from the PSL. That is
important.”
