Ferwafa annuls decision on broadcasting rights

The 2014/15 National Football League will not have an official broadcaster after the National Football Association (Ferwafa) released a statement on Monday night saying that no media company had met requirements to warrant broadcasting rights. Ferwafa recently agreed in principle to sell the broadcasting rights to Tele 10 Group of Companies but after complaints from other media houses citing unfairness in giving the deal to Tele 10, the Minister of Sports and Culture, Joe Habineza advised Ferwafa to call it off and open a new bidding process. Ferwafa spokesman, Moussa Hakizimana told Times Sport that the media houses that tendered for the broadcasting rights did not have the capacity to reach all Rwandans, a major requirement to get the broadcasting rights. According to Hakizimana, the media houses promised that they will work with other radio stations across the country to make sure that they relay live games but this would take time to set up. Although Hakizimana refused to reveal the media houses had bid for the rights, Lemigo TV Managing Director Jean Damascene Bukuru and Rwanda Broadcasting Agency Director Arthur Asiimwe denied putting in any bids. “When we looked at the numbers, we actually found out that we shall not be in position to benefit much from broadcasting the national football league so we did not submit a bid,” Asiimwe said adding that the research they carried out showed there was no financial gain in bidding for the rights. Tele 10 CEO Cedric Pierre-Louis was not available by press time but the company is understood to have been the only one that bid for the broadcasting rights. Pierre-Louis recently told this paper that Tele 10 TV and Radio 10 are accessible to 95% of the country and have the capacity to broadcast live games. Tele 10 is understood to have offered Ferwafa $1.2m (Rwf826m) over a three-year period with $300,000 (Rwf206m) offered in the first season, $400,000 (Rwf275m) and $500,000 (Rwf344m) in the next two seasons respectively. The unprecedented deal which would have been the biggest in Rwandan football now hangs in balance with Ferwafa further struggling to convince Bralirwa to renew sponsorship of the league.