South Africa has scrapped a proposed sponsorship deal with Tottenham Hotspur. Last week it was reported that conditional approval had been given for South Africa Tourism to tie up a three-year deal worth £42.5million with the football club.
The news of the big-money deal had caused plenty of controversy in South Africa as they believed the money could be better utilised in the country. It had been suggested within the South African sports community that such a large amount of money would be better spent on local sports development.
Amid big question marks over the proposed sponsorship agreement, on Tuesday South Africa's parliament tourism committee called for the deal to be stopped immediately.
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"This deal, it ends here, today, now. Because there is everything wrong about the deal itself. There must be an investigation on this matter with immediate effect," said committee chairperson Thandi Mahambehlala, as reported by BBC.
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Last Thursday when speaking to the media, South African Tourism's acting chief executive officer Themba Khumalo discussed the sponsorship and made it clear that the deal was about promoting South Africa in the United Kingdom rather than being a football deal as the country is one of his country's premium travelling markets.
"The money that is invested in tourism isn't money that's required for other needs in the country. There are departments that are dedicated to that," said Khumalo, as reported by South African media outlet news24.
"Ours is to spend money to persuade travellers to come to South Africa to spend money. That is what we're legislated to do. Sport and entertainment are audience aggregators, so people will pay money to have you access their product.
"Our deal has nothing to do with football because ours is to access the viewers who watch the football to become part of the travelling market to South Africa.
"We are accessing the audience in the English Premier League so that they can come to South Africa to spend money here through tourism. This deal is not isolation with other deals that we have in place because it's not about football, it's about audiences."
It had been reported in South Africa that in exchange for the £42.5million investment, SA Tourism would receive kit branding, interview backdrop branding, match-day advertising, partnership announcements, training camps in South Africa, and free access to tickets and stadium hospitality.
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