ENGLISH Premier League club Tottenham (Spurs) are reportedly set to sign a £42.5 million sponsorship deal with South Africa’s state-run tourism board to attract more visitors to the country.
Leaked documents obtained by South African news outlet Daily Maverick earlier this week revealed that Tottenham were planning to ink a three-year sponsorship starting from next season.
News of the deal, which has reportedly been in the works for six years, has sparked widespread controversy within the South African sports community, who feel the sizeable amount would be better spent locally.
If the figure stated by the Daily Maverick is correct, Tottenham’s £42 million investment in deadline day signing Pedro Porro would be entirely repaid by the sponsorship, the British Daily Mail newspaper claimed.
The north London club have yet to comment on the reported deal.
Themba Khumalo, South African Tourism’s acting chief executive officer, confirmed on Thursday that the deal had been given conditional approval – but was unable to reveal any figures linked to the sponsorship, the Daily Mail reported.
‘The board made a conditional approval because it commercially makes sense, but it needs communication with the stakeholders to make sure they’re aligned,’ he said, according to South African media outlet news24.
‘The stakeholders were not engaged because we were going to do so before the leak came out.
‘We believe in the engagement, but there isn’t a signed contract with the entity. There was a conversation that led to the conditional approval.
‘There’s no signed contract, but there is an intention to. We need to do due diligence and follow government processes.
‘We had to halt this conversation to have this conversation, so once we complete this one, we’ll look forward. The other teams had tourism partners and Spurs didn’t have one. We looked at every team in that tier.’
After South Africa’s media leaked the proposal, public outrage has swept the country, with Brand Africa chairman Thebe Ikalafeng labelling the deal an ‘irresponsible use of tax’.
Describing it as a ‘vanity investment’, Ikalafeng urged that the money should instead be put towards ‘safety for travellers, lights and maintenance’.
Political party Democratic Alliance said: ‘[The proposal is] a slap in the face of every South African whose hard-earned tax will be used to sponsor a first-world football team. [It is] an insult for the South African tourism and travel sector which was decimated, and in many cases completely destroyed, during and post Covid.’
Spurs, who will be without manager Antonio Conte this weekend after the Italian underwent surgery for cholecystitis on Wednesday, face off against Manchester City in London on Sunday.
