Happy friday, ladies and gents. It's time for #KnowYourOwner. It's a bit of a different one this week but today we look at @SuperSportFC

Pretoria FC & the marketing play
The African dream
Khulu Sibiya & his team
Mzansi monopoly

#ForeverUnited #DStvPrem #PSL

As usual, I will re-post my disclaimer. I'm not an auditor, accountant nor am I a sports journalist. I am merely a football fan who likes to read up on the financial side of sport and this is all publicly available information.

Let us begin

#KnowYourOwner #DStvPrem

In 1994 Pretoria City Football Club was purchased as a vehicle to market the @MNet Group with the hope of using football to grow their brand reach across the country and eventually the continent. The strategy was always a marketing play to build brand reach

It worked spectacularly. Backed by Naspers, Mnet Group turned @MultiChoice is now the leading entertainment company on the African continent, delivering to approximately 20 million people across 50 countries with offices all across the continent.

Its portfolio consists of a number of operating platforms, including DSTV, GOtv, Showmax and Dstv Now. The business has a market cap of approximately R55 billion.

So are there any sporting people behind this? Is there a sporting soul behind the current leadership team?

The team that leads todays success for SuperSport United is led by chairman, Khulu Sibiya. Joining him on the board are Itumeleng Gideon Khobane who is CEO of Supersport United while the rest of the directors are Graham Abrahams, Marc Jury, Muhammed Essack and Carmen Miller

Khulu Sibiya was born in Nigel on 15th March 1948. He is one of the original's of Mzansi football having played alongside the likes of Sugar Ray Xulu and Wellington Chippa Khoza. Aged just 19 years old he captained Orlando City Ramblers to 9-1 drubbing of @orlandopirates in 1969

After his playing days, he turned to journalism and was appointed editor of City Press after just ten years in the profession, he was senior general manager (consulting) of Media24, former chair of M-Net and SuperSport International Holdings and director of MIH Holdings.

Serving as CEO is Gideon Khobane. @IGKhobane is 43 and was born in Springs, Gauteng. He was educated at Queen's College where he played athletics and rugby before matriculating in 1995. After high school, he initially studied accounting obtaining a Diploma in Accounting

He switched to Marketing, studying through the AAA School Of Advertising, UNISA, Wits and GIBS. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Management, and a Master’s Degree (specializing in Strategic Marketing). He was at M-Net for 13 years before becoming SuperSport CEO

Apart from Multichoice, he is also the sole director of Marule Street Investments.

There is little else known about his private life or early education as he keeps that very much under wraps.

Graham Abrahams heads up Enterprises & Regulatory Affairs and has been with the company since October 2005. He holds BA & B.Ed degrees and is a former Director of Communications in the Ministry of Sport and Recreation

#KnowYourOwner #ForeverUnited #DStvPrem

Abrahams previously worked in print media for 11 years as a freelance sports writer and columnist. He's been active in sports administration and dispute resolution since 1985. He's also director in two companies, GD Management and Consulting as well as Priceless Pearls.

Marc Jury is a director and also Group CEO of SuperSport. From 2012 to 2016 he was Head of Commercial and Marketing at Cricket SA. Prior to this he was Commercial Executive at SA Investments Limited, a company in the business of commercialising sport and entertainment.

Little known about him beyond his work life however I know that he holds a Bachelor of Business Science Degree (with Honours in Marketing, majoring in Economics). He was also a director in the T20 SA Proprietary Company alongside Thabang Moroe, the axed Cricket South Africa CEO

Mohammed Zaheer Essack serves as a Senior Finance Manager at SuperSport and is responsible for budgeting, forecasting and planning, financial control, reporting and finance organisation development.

#KnowYourOwner #DStvPrem #PSL

His previous work experience includes seven years at auditing firm, Deloitte. He matriculated at William Hills Secondary school and holds a http://B.Com  Accounting Degree from University of Johannesburg and Bachelor of Accounting Sciences Honours from UNISA.

It's clear that @SuperSportFC have a wide array of skills at their disposal and their expertise have led to great success on the pitch with three #DStvPrem titles, three #NedbankCup victories, two @MTN8 and one #TelkomKnockout.

They also aim to dominate the future of South African football by producing the very best youth talent through the SuperSport Soccer Schools dotted around the country and the SuperSport Academy which produces some of the best young players in the land.

That said, @MultiChoiceGRP have always had their eye on total and utter domination of local football. They sponsor the league through DSTV, the DStv Diski Challenge , they own a team in and even sponsor the referees through another subsidiary, @ShowmaxOnline

#KnowYourOwner

At the top table of power in the league, hey have Stan Matthews in the National Executive Committee of the league. He previously served as @OfficialPSL chief executive and director of football at SuperSport.

Their biggest trump card is the broadcasting revenue they've brought to the league. Without SuperSport, the league wouldn't be half as big as it is and most teams wouldn't survive. Of the R1 billion revenue the league made in 2019, R600 million was from SuperSport broadcast fees.

Some would say there is an undoubted conflict of interest with the cards that MultiChoice holds in the local game but fact is, they are the reason why fans of all football teams are able to enjoy the world class product that the PSL has become.

It's a quite incredible story, this one. And one that will likely have many more chapters as the years go by. This concludes my slightly different review of SuperSport for Know Your Owner.

Until next week

#KnowYourOwner #ForeverUnited #DStvPrem #PSL