Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has called off the deal between South African Tourism and English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.
De Lille advised the board not to go ahead and sign the deal. The minister said the board had responded to her request and agreed with her.
The three-year deal was worth almost R1 billion and would have seen Spurs, one of the top sides in the English Premier League, partnering with SA Tourism to market the country. The proposed deal included a number of marketing and branding initiatives.
As part of the agreement, SA Tourism would receive kit branding, interview backdrop branding, match-day advertising, partnership announcements, training camps in South Africa, and free access to tickets and stadium hospitality.
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De Lille, though, made it clear that she was against the deal going ahead, from the moment she took up her position in her new portfolio just weeks ago. She said that in the midst of the tough economic conditions it was not correct to use this kind of money in a sponsorship.
“In a letter from the SA Tourism board chairperson, based on the advice I have given to the board and which I had publicly stated, that the deal should not proceed, the SA Tourism board has agreed not to proceed with the proposal. The SA Tourism board will no longer proceed with the transaction, nor will it seek the concomitant requisite approvals for the proposed transaction,” said De Lille.
She said that she would continue to work with SA Tourism to find better options to promote South Africa to tourists overseas.
