ASA confirm Soweto Marathon broadcast stance

ASA confirm Soweto Marathon broadcast stance

Athletics South Africa boss James Moloi has confirmed to SABC Sport that the Soweto Marathon will only be broadcast on pay channel SuperSport due to their four-year sponsorship agreement. 

There has been public outcry over why the People™s Race will not be available on the public broadcaster, with the Soweto Marathon Trust having wanted the race to be on SABC.

However, ASA and Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) instructed the Soweto Marathon Trust to grant the pay channel permission to televise the race, though Moloi claims the Trust refused to do so. 

"Our case is very simple - last year we signed a contract with SuperSport for a period of four years, so what we have asked for with all the races, including the Soweto Marathon, as part of the contract, everything must be televised on SuperSport and we are not going to breach the contract," explained Moloi.

"We wrote a letter to the province [CGA] to speak to Soweto [Marathon] Trust and we received a message that the Soweto [Marathon] Trust don't want SuperSport to televise the event.

"Don't forget, Soweto Trust is not reporting to us, they are reporting to the CGA. So, we wrote a letter to CGA to say, make it a point that SuperSport televise the event, but we are still waiting for CGA to come back to us with regards to the outcome."

CGA president Steven Khanyile told SABC Sport that they support the move that the pay channel should broadcast the event despite the refusal by the Soweto Marathon Trust.

"The position of CGA, as far as the broadcast of the Soweto Marathon race is concerned, is we're all aware that ASA have the broadcast rights and they gave all of it to SuperSport to broadcast events," emphasised Khanyile.

"I know there were issues around that but where we stand as a province is that we support the move that SuperSport should be allowed to broadcast the event.

"We have already engaged in terms of ensuring that SuperSport is allowed by the SMT to give a person that will liaise with SuperSport to come through and do preparations to broadcast the event.

"We hope this event will go smoothly and there won't be any issues in as far as ensuring people are happy to see this big, historic and iconic event taking place on TV."

By Charles Baloyi