South African FA Extends with SA Breweries

The South African Football Association (SAFA) and SA Breweries, under the Castle Lager branding, announced on Thursday in Johannesburg the renewal of their partnership until 2017, worth R150m ($17.9m), after their previous contract expired four months ago.

“We were always going to renew our ties with SAFA, and we are glad the sponsorship has continued for another five years,” said SA Breweries head of sponsorship, Rob Fleming, at the announcement.

“We are delighted because football is the primary fashion for most consumers.”

SAB has been a part of South African football for the last 55 years and has been behind Bafana since their re-admission into international sport in 1992.

However, the new deal is significantly lower than the R250m ($30m) which went into SAFA’s coffers over the last five-year period.

SAFA chief executive Robin Petersen elaborated by saying the latest deal did not include the sponsorship of the third division nor the incentives for international games.

“We decided on a package, and this time it doesn’t include sponsorship of the Castle regional league (third division), which will be a separate deal,” Peterson said.

“There are also sponsorship-based incentives that are in place as well and also we needed to make some space for two more partners to come on board.”

The dizzy heights of winning the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations and qualifying for the 1998 FIFA World Cup have become a distant memory.

Bafana failed to qualify for this year’s AFCON, and have had a rocky start to their 2014 Brazil World Cup aspirations.

“We have set targets as part of the deal, where there is a basic fee in the contract,” Fleming said.

“And there will be additional perks should the team perform well against top teams or progress to major tournaments.”