Tout Puissant Mazembe

The FECOFA (Association of Congolese Football) had recently concluded a sponsorship contract with the telecommunications company Vodacom for the benefit of the LINAFOOT (National Football League). This partner will pay $ 500,000 to the league, but if the clubs do not pay their participation fee, the L1 championship may not be over...

For Mwehu BEYA, the president of the Management Committee of LINAFOOT, this contract up to $ 500,000 will not benefit the clubs at first, given challenges that Linafoot is facing to organize this championship. The latter will have to be content with television rights, especially since the exclusivity of games on television is not included in this contract.

«Last season there was no sponsor and it did not go very well for the friends who led the league. This season, FECOFA felt it was necessary to find someone who could compensate LINAFOOT in this championship version. This is how – as Linafoot has no legal personality – FECOFA has negotiated and concluded this Memorandum of Understanding with Vodacom.

The amount is known: 500,000 US dollars. For the winner, it did not change it's $ 100,000; There will also be an amount to organize the Awards, that is to say to give different prizes to the best at the end of the championship. And the Linafoot will work with the rest. But if we have to share this with the clubs, the championship may not come to the end. Because the participation fees we demand from clubs have not been fully paid. And on top of that, we ask the teams, who have these disputes to be able to pay us otherwise we will be obliged to take measures, even if we do not want to go on that route. With the clubs it's complicated... but where we fight, with the Commission, it is the exclusivity in terms of broadcast matches that we have dropped [note in this contract].

That's why any television channel can sign a contract with us. This is just how clubs can find their way..." said Mwehu BEYA at the Linafoot press conference on Friday, January 12^th.