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ISSA drags feet on Coca-Cola's $30m schoolboy offerIAN BURNETT, Sports Editor
Friday, May 18, 2007
RADCLIFFE.. I'm not in a position to comment
WISYNCO Group Limited, through its flagship brand Coca-Cola, has orchestrated a huge deal to take over the sponsorship of the island's senior schoolboy football competitions, but the apparent tardiness of the Inter-Secondary Schools' Sports Association (ISSA) to complete the near five-month negotiation is jeopardising the deal, Observer sources have claimed.
According to our sources, Coca-Cola met with ISSA in January and offered, with the help of two associate sponsors, to underwrite the competitions - the Coca-Cola/ISSA Manning and daCosta Cup - to the tune of a whopping $30 million per year, more than 300 per cent of last year's total contribution from joint sponsors Pepsi Jamaica Limited and Jamaica National Building Society.
If the deal materialises, it would better that of the Wray & Nephew-sponsored National Premier League (NPL) in direct sponsorship dollars. The NPL is the nation's top club football competition.
It is believed that last year's joint sponsorship of the schoolboy football competition was valued at about $8 million, and one sponsor, Jamaica National, has since expressed a desire to sever ties with the competition.
Following the first meeting between Coca-Cola and ISSA, the schools' governing body requested a certain time frame to apprise Pepsi, which has been associated with schoolboy football for nearly two decades. However, Observer sources say that that original deadline, as well as a number of additional meeting dates for ISSA to respond to the offer have passed.
After learning of Wisynco's interest to take over the sponsorship of the competition, Pepsi is reported to have tried to garner associate sponsors of its own in an effort to match or better the proposal put forward by Coca-Cola.
"It has been a very lengthy process to get a response or a date for a response from ISSA, and the people (Coca-Cola) want adequate time to get their house in order for such a massive sponsorship to work," said one Observer source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The source also added that the Coca-Cola-led group is willing to add millions more in promotion of the competition.
When contacted Wednesday, a Coca-Cola spokesman refused to confirm or deny that the negotiations were being stalled by ISSA. "It is inappropriate to comment as these are private negotiations between ISSA and ourselves," he said.
ISSA president Clement Radcliffe did not wish to elaborate on the issue, though he expressed annoyance Wednesday evening that the information had been leaked to the Observer.
"I'm not getting into that. I am now receiving sponsorship offers and I am not in a position to comment on that," said Radcliffe.
"I am in negotiations with a number of companies which have offered to sponsor the competition," he insisted. "When we have information to release to the public we will release it, as we have done in the past. we are going to take a decision and we will not be pressured."
Radcliffe said this was the first time in 20 years that ISSA would be negotiating a sponsorship deal as Pepsi had been sponsoring the schoolboy football competitions for that long.
Pepsi Jamaica Limited's marketing director, John Burrowes, declined to state the value of his company's sponsorship, but told the Observer that Pepsi was "not willing" to match a sponsorship that would be three times its current deal.
"Pepsi won't indicate what it is offering in terms of a sponsorship," he said. "I think it's in poor taste to talk about money when we are dealing with schools and schoolchildren. if you are talking about professional sports that is different. I think that it should be about good, clean, healthy competition, and it's important that ISSA gets the sponsorship it needs to deal with it as best as it possibly can. It's not about money. It's about providing wholesome, safe competition amongst young people."
Pepsi's offer, Burrowes said, "is made in an environment where there are other sponsors as well".
Source: Copyright© 2000-2001 Jamaica Observer
ISSA drags feet on Coca-Cola's $30m schoolboy offerIAN BURNETT, Sports Editor
Friday, May 18, 2007
RADCLIFFE.. I'm not in a position to commentWISYNCO Group Limited, through its flagship brand Coca-Cola, has orchestrated a huge deal to take over the sponsorship of the island's senior schoolboy football competitions, but the apparent tardiness of the Inter-Secondary Schools' Sports Association (ISSA) to complete the near five-month negotiation is jeopardising the deal, Observer sources have claimed.
According to our sources, Coca-Cola met with ISSA in January and offered, with the help of two associate sponsors, to underwrite the competitions - the Coca-Cola/ISSA Manning and daCosta Cup - to the tune of a whopping $30 million per year, more than 300 per cent of last year's total contribution from joint sponsors Pepsi Jamaica Limited and Jamaica National Building Society.
If the deal materialises, it would better that of the Wray & Nephew-sponsored National Premier League (NPL) in direct sponsorship dollars. The NPL is the nation's top club football competition.
It is believed that last year's joint sponsorship of the schoolboy football competition was valued at about $8 million, and one sponsor, Jamaica National, has since expressed a desire to sever ties with the competition.
Following the first meeting between Coca-Cola and ISSA, the schools' governing body requested a certain time frame to apprise Pepsi, which has been associated with schoolboy football for nearly two decades. However, Observer sources say that that original deadline, as well as a number of additional meeting dates for ISSA to respond to the offer have passed.
After learning of Wisynco's interest to take over the sponsorship of the competition, Pepsi is reported to have tried to garner associate sponsors of its own in an effort to match or better the proposal put forward by Coca-Cola.
"It has been a very lengthy process to get a response or a date for a response from ISSA, and the people (Coca-Cola) want adequate time to get their house in order for such a massive sponsorship to work," said one Observer source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The source also added that the Coca-Cola-led group is willing to add millions more in promotion of the competition.
When contacted Wednesday, a Coca-Cola spokesman refused to confirm or deny that the negotiations were being stalled by ISSA. "It is inappropriate to comment as these are private negotiations between ISSA and ourselves," he said.
ISSA president Clement Radcliffe did not wish to elaborate on the issue, though he expressed annoyance Wednesday evening that the information had been leaked to the Observer.
"I'm not getting into that. I am now receiving sponsorship offers and I am not in a position to comment on that," said Radcliffe.
"I am in negotiations with a number of companies which have offered to sponsor the competition," he insisted. "When we have information to release to the public we will release it, as we have done in the past. we are going to take a decision and we will not be pressured."
Radcliffe said this was the first time in 20 years that ISSA would be negotiating a sponsorship deal as Pepsi had been sponsoring the schoolboy football competitions for that long.
Pepsi Jamaica Limited's marketing director, John Burrowes, declined to state the value of his company's sponsorship, but told the Observer that Pepsi was "not willing" to match a sponsorship that would be three times its current deal.
"Pepsi won't indicate what it is offering in terms of a sponsorship," he said. "I think it's in poor taste to talk about money when we are dealing with schools and schoolchildren. if you are talking about professional sports that is different. I think that it should be about good, clean, healthy competition, and it's important that ISSA gets the sponsorship it needs to deal with it as best as it possibly can. It's not about money. It's about providing wholesome, safe competition amongst young people."
Pepsi's offer, Burrowes said, "is made in an environment where there are other sponsors as well".
Source: Copyright© 2000-2001 Jamaica Observer
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