IN EARLY September, just before the National Football League started, Ferwafa was at crossroads as Bralirwa, the league sponsors of the topflight football league for the last few years, dragged their feet over a new deal.

The major point of contention for the brewery company was that their main competitor Skol had signed a Euro 50,000 three-year deal with league giants Rayon Sports.

Rayon Sports have the biggest fan base in the country, so any company that partners the Nyanza-based side is guaranteed of good visibility and consumption of their products throughout the country.

Since there was no way Ferwafa could stop the Rayon Sports-Skol sponsorship deal, and Bralirwa only keen on a Rwf179m one-year deal, Ferwafa president Vincent Nzamwita and his team decided to venture into something new – selling broadcasting rights.

It was the first time that Ferwafa was selling broadcasting rights of the national football league after previous attempts to lure Supersport failed to materialise.

Four media companies that include- Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA), Lemigo TV, Tele 10 and Tanzania’s Azam attended a meeting called to notify media houses the intention to sell broadcasting rights.

Ferwafa did not issue any guidelines or terms of reference to the bidders and only Azam and Tele 10 took the issue seriously, putting in written bids.

Azam wanted to pay $250, 000 for this season with an option for renewal while Tele10 topped that amount with $50, 000 with an option of renewing and increasing the amount for two more seasons.

"Ferwafa told us that there were international companies bidding for the rights so we had to put in a good offer and also include clauses for renewing the deal with improved terms,” Tele 10 Managing Director Cedric Pierre Louis told this paper in an interview.

And just when Tele 10 and Ferwafa were due to sign a $1.2m three-year deal, other local media houses complained that the process had not been fair although Ferwafa Spokesperson Moussa Hakizimana claims everyone had been notified of the intention to sell broadcasting rights.

"We told everyone but most media houses didn’t take it seriously and many never attended the first meeting,” Hakizimana says, admitting that the process was not clear because Ferwafa was doing such a thing for the first time.

Tele 10 backtracks on deal

When Ferwafa called for a new bidding process, only Tele 10 put in a bid and even then they lowered the initial offer from $300, 000 to $150,000 for this season.

The Ferwafa PRO also says that Tele10 did not issue guarantees that they cover the whole country, something that the football body was insisting on.

Ferwafa was to later announce that no media company had met the criteria to get the broadcasting rights.

Hope for a deal

Tele 10, however, hope that they can reach a deal with Ferwafa to air the second leg of the National Football League slated for February, with the latter keen to have a new sponsor on board after the withdrawal of Bralirwa.