Rayon Sports-Skol talks won’t be affected by Bralirwa deal – official

Rayon Sports officials have clarified that the recent sponsorship deal between the national governing football body, Ferwafa and Bralirwa won’t jeopardise their negotiations with brewing company, Skol for the latter to sponsor the Blues. Both Bralirwa and Skol are brewing companies and many football pundits had cast doubt on whether Skol, which is reportedly in talks to sponsor Rayon Sports would pull out after Bralirwa inked a four year deal to be the official sponsors of the top flight league. Rwanda Premier League didn’t have a league sponsor last season until Bralirwa injected a reported Rwf 640 million to sponsor the league for the next four years last week. The deal will see the current Rwanda Premier League rebrand immediately to ‘Primus National League’. Rayon Sports football club spokesperson Jean Paul Nkurunziza told Times Sport that there won’t be any hindrance to their talks with Skol because FERWAFA’s existing rules and regulations on sponsorship allow two companies doing a similar business to both be part of the league as sponsors. “I don’t see any problem in getting a new sponsor for the league because it doesn’t remove any club’s right to work with its sponsors. What is important is to respect what the contract stipulates as per the rules and regulations of FERWAFA and as discussed during the contract negotiations, our club is free to comfortably advertise its sponsors as usual” Nkurunziza said. Nkurunziza is confident that Rayon, like other top flight clubs, will instead benefit from the sponsorship deal as the club expects a certain amount of money from the sponsorship between Bralirwa and Ferwafa. “As one of the members of the football federation, we are happy to have a league sponsor. It’s really good news to see the league having a sponsor,” he said. According to a reliable source from FERWAFA, Bralirwa reserves 50 per cent of rights on pitch branding while both clubs and the football governing body share the remaining half for their sponsors. However, clubs remain with rights to advertise their sponsors on their kits. According to FERWAFA’s Assistant spokesperson Jules Karangwa, the contract’s rules and regulations are clear and leave club sponsors a room to advertise but at certain limitations that reserve the rights of the league sponsor. “Having a league sponsor does not limit clubs from having their own sponsors, but the fact that they are not the sponsors of the whole league means that the football governing body sets limitations on their rights. The clubs were consulted during the contract negotiations and the contract was signed with their consent,” he said. According to Karangwa, a specific space will be reserved for Bralirwa to sell its products across the stadium’s premises and SKOL will be given its own space. “Of course the official league sponsor has bigger privileges compared to club sponsors,” Karangwa said.