INF holds up Queens World Cup rights share

International Netball Federation (INF) is yet to release Malawi national netball team’s  image and television rights share from the 2015 Netball World Cup (NWC) over a year after the tournament was played in Sydney, Australia.

The development has sent the penniless Netball Association of Malawi (NAM)—which confirmed having not received the funds—into panic as it planned to use the funds to prepare for the upcoming Fast5 Netball World Series.

Malawi was among the 16 countries that competed at the Netball World Cup in August last year where the Queens finished sixth. Australia emerged champions while New Zealand were runners-up and England came third.

Speaking in an interview on Friday, NAM president Rosy Chinunda said the INF has been promising to pay the funds “soon but it has not been forthcoming.”

“We have sent several reminders but still the funds haven’t reached us. What INF is saying is that they are still processing the payment,” she said.

NAM, which has already exhausted its K32 million allocation in the national budget, is hunting for K33 million to prepare for the Fast5 Netball World  Series in Australia later next month.

Chinunda said they were hoping to get the image and television rights funds in time to use them to prepare for the tournament.

“We were optimistic to get the funds as soon as possible so that as the girls go into camp on October 1, we should use our World Cup share as a starting point. But as things stand, it is difficult to count on that money,” she said.

Meanwhile, INF spokesperson Angela Sanderson in an e-mailed response confirmed that the world netball governing body owes Malawi the funds.

“All teams participating in the Netball World Cup receive a share of the surplus made by the event as a whole including income from the sale of broadcasting rights…The process for the release of the funds is on-going,” she said but could not specify when the money will be disbursed.

Sanderson could not disclose the amount of Malawi’s share saying: “Unfortunately, the agreements for the broadcasting rights are commercial in confidence therefore cannot be disclosed.”  n