Heritage

KPL fails to net Sh60m as SuperSport withdraws

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A Kenya Premier League match. The withdrawal of South African broadcaster, SuperSport at the start of the 2017 season hit KPL’s earnings. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenya Premier League (KPL) may have lost more than Sh60 million in revenues for the football season ended November last year after it opted to forgo several competitions.

KPL’s governing body’s finance committee — for fear of incurring heavy expenditure — unanimously agreed to scrap a number of competitions and projects, after its main sponsors SuperSport withdrew in January 2017.

The suspended tournaments and projects included Under-20 championship, Top Eight competition, licence share and joint development projects with Football Kenya Federation during the 2016 season.

In 2016, KPK spent a total of spent Sh58. 5 million to host the competitions from which it generated Sh64.1 million in revenues, bonus incentives and the designated fund, its financials show.

KPL’s operating budget also increased compared to 2016 with staff costs, professional fees and bad debts amounting to more than Sh26 million.

The association formed in 2003 to run the local top-tier football league currently has 18 clubs.

Despite the projected loss in revenue and rise in operating costs, the body managed to hit Sh2.3 million in profit, up from a Sh4. 4 million loss in the previous season.

The financials show that the withdrawal by South African broadcaster, SuperSport at the start of the 2017 season had a negative impact on KPL’s bottom lines as broadcasting rights’ millions disappeared.

Apart from suspending key tournaments, it also stopped hiring of floodlights for its league matches and failed to host the referees’ tests where it normally partners with the Football Kenya Federation to select officials for the entire season.

By comparison, the top-flight clubs got a share of the Sh122.9 million worth of broadcasting rights sold to SuperSport during the 2016 season. “Talks are under way to get a broadcast partners, so the arrangement we have had this year is a short-term agreement with Free-To-Air (FTA) channels as we try and explore opportunities to get a paid TV back,” KPL chief Executive officer Jack Oguda told Business Daily.

KPL is still trying to secure a broadcast partner that will reduce over-reliance on its current sponsorship deal with gaming firm, Sportpesa.

The firm became title sponsors in May 2015 in a deal worth Sh360 million for four-and-a-half years, with Sh 80 million every year that would rise by 10 per cent annually.

Under the deal, clubs are getting at least Sh 3.4 million every season.

Oguda said the league expansion to 18 teams, club licensing and court cases were the key contributors to the rise in professional fees.

Two cases, one challenging the decision by FKF to increase teams from 16 to 18 and another against the relegation of Muhoroni Youth, Thika United and Sofapaka on grounds that they had not complied with the Club licensing Requirements increase the professional fees.

Staff costs rose to Sh 15.9 million, a 14 per cent increase from Sh 13. 9 million the previous year while professional costs amounted to Sh7.9 million up from Sh2. 8 million.

The financials show KPL was forced to write off Sh3.2 million in bad debts owed by Ticket Masters on allegations of failing to remit revenues from match ticketing for a past Top Eight edition.

Committee sitting expenses however reduced to Sh6.3 million from Sh9.4 million, a fall of 33 per cent.

Oguda added that resumption of the Top Eight and Under-20 competitions is dependent on getting new sponsors, a move that KPL is currently pursuing.