At the end of the 2021/22 Tanzania Premier League season, each club that participated in the top tier league will pocket money depending on their ranking, according to the Tanzania Premier League Board.Yanga SC are just a win away from bagging 600 million Tanzania shillings, an equivalent of 30 million Kenyan shillings, meant for the winners of the TPL as they currently lead the league standings with a buffer of 13 points between them and second-placed Simba SC.The prize money set to be dished out to the participants will be courtesy of the league’s chief sponsors, broadcast partners Azam Media Limited and title sponsors National Bank of Commerce, the bigger chunk of the money coming from Azam Media Limited.The first runners-up and the other CAF Champions League representatives will pocket half of what the champions will get, 15 million Kenyan shillings, and the amount keeps dropping as the ranks go down all the way to the relegated teams.
Tanzania Football federation President Wallace Karia is on record saying that the step is a big milestone in football development in the country as it helps clubs carry the financial burden in the league.”It is a milestone in football development. TFF is struggling to reduce the burden for the clubs in order to feature in the league comfortably and give their best,” the President was once quoted as saying.It is not a coincidence that the Tanzanian League can manage to share prize money across all the participating teams while we struggle back in Kenya to raise the prize money only for the winner, yet a couple of years back we were miles ahead of Tanzania on all fronts.Mgawanyo wa zawadi za fedha kulingana nafasi kwa Ligi Kuu ya NBC msimu wa 2021/2022.@tplboard @Tanfootball @NBCTanzania @azamtvtz @TBConlineTZ pic.twitter.com/GCpw5JBk79— Tanzania Premier League Board (@tplboard) June 9, 2022 The secret perhaps lies in the progressive nature of Azam’s deal with TPL across the years since 2013. the result has been exponential growth both in terms of quality and financial muscle.The annual broadcast deal value of the TPL has grown from a mere $987,687 in 2013 (figures around Ksh 84 million then) to $9,743,877 (Ksh 1.1B) in 2022 in the recent 10-year broadcast deal that runs all the way to 2031, according to data from African Football Data Center.In November 2021, Chinese Pay-tv broadcast platform StarTimes terminated its broadcast deal with the Football Kenya Federation Premier League (FKF-PL) which was valued at Ksh123 million a year.Compared to that of TPL, the values show just how much Tanzania has overtaken Kenya on that front as TPL’s broadcast deal is almost 10 times more than FKFPL’s terminated one.
Overall, the deal is worth Ksh 11.33 billion for the 10 years.Notably, as the annual broadcast deal amount keeps on increasing, the duration of the deal has increased as well from an initial three years to five years, then to 10 years.Data from the same portal further shows that the TPL was among the leagues in Africa to enjoy top broadcast deals in 2021/2021.The South African League topped the list with a deal of up to Ksh 3.6B, followed by the Egyptian League with one worth Ksh 1.76B, then the Moroccon’s slightly edging out TPL at Ksh 1.29B, with the Tanzanian one coming fourth.