KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Football League (MFL) is expected to sign a 3-year partnership deal worth RM32 million to manage and produce Live matches for Unifi TV (TM Malaysia) with Spacelabs Technology by the end of the month.
According to a source in the football fraternity, it is understood that Spacelabs will be paid RM10 million in the first year and RM11 million respectively for the second and third year in accordance with the deal. Registered in October of 2019, Spacelabs is a new production company and is not yet well-known among industry players.
In light of MFL’s current financial constraints, industry experts have raised the question as to how the organisation will be able to secure their first-year payment to Spacelabs.
The source also revealed that MFL still has an unpaid debt of RM4.3 million since 2019 with its previous production partner IDEAL Systems.
“How is MFL going to pay Spacelabs for next season when it can’t even pay off its default payment to IDEAL Systems,” said the well-informed source on the matter.
It is also understood that Spacelabs is asking MFL for an upfront payment of 20% to purchase production equipment for the forthcoming season.
“They have not locked in any sponsors yet — CIMB and Air Asia are out while TM could be slashing its RM30 million budget by half — so where is the money coming from? Since March, MFL employees have taken a pay-cut of 15% (for earnings below RM4,000) and 30% (for earnings of RM4,000 and above) respectively because the organisation is bleeding — it’s running out of money.
“What kind of deal is this? MFL is engaging a production company that does not even have the (proper) equipment. The agreement is still being drafted but it is unsure if MFL did their due diligence or made a decision based (solely) on recommendations,” said the source.
However, an insider mentioned that Spacelabs’ healthy relationship with certain parties in the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and MFL could clinch them the deal.
Meanwhile, MFL has disbanded its in-house production unit, which is comprised of nine employees; the general manager and producer were both given marching orders by the management while two others have resigned. It is expected that the remaining few will be absorbed by Spacelabs.
It is also believed that MFL has an additional debt of around RM48 million in default payments to commentators, vendors, match officials and other such contractors since 2019.
“This issue was raised during the MFL board meeting on October 28, but to date, no action has been taken,” the source told The Vibes.
MFL has yet to respond to The Vibes regarding this matter. – The Vibes, 9 December, 2020
