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New Delhi: The IPL saga looks all set to throw up another controversy that could dog Lalit Modi, this time centred on a "facilitation fee" of $80 million paid by Multi Screen Media (MSM) - formerly Sony Entertainment Television - to World Sports Group (WSG).
Top cricket board officials said that far from approving such a deal, the BCCI, the IPL governing council and the eight franchises had absolutely no hint of this facilitation agreement as Modi was the only one dealing in the matter.
The net result, the sources pointed out, was that "almost Rs 400 crore have been siphoned off from the BCCI/IPL coffers and gone into the hands of a middle man".
The fee was apparently linked to the renegotiation of IPL's television rights contract with MSM last year. WSG had originally bagged IPL TV rights for 10 years starting 2008 with a bid of $918 million and a commitment to spend another $108 million on promoting the event. It had simultaneously signed a back-to-back deal with MSM that Sony would be the official broadcaster.
However, a couple of months before IPL 2009 was to start, the contract was terminated, a day after TOI broke the story of MSM CEO Kunal Dasgupta losing his job in the middle of a murky deal.
Following the termination, MSM filed for an injunction in Mumbai High Court and a fierce court battled ensued between MSM and IPL/BCCI.
What was public knowledge back then was that Modi was directly negotiating with MSM and no intermediary was involved. The deal was finally recast with MSM agreeing to pay $1.63 billion for the remaining nine years of the ten-year period.
What is now being alleged by top officials in the cricket board is that MSM had entered into an agreement with WSG's offshore company in Mauritius to pay a facilitation fee of 7.5% of the IPL contract value.
The facilitation fee adds up to over $80m over the life of the contract, and the deal was to pay the maximum amount over first three years, the officials said.
On April 14, 2009, MSM remitted, from the Development Bank of Singapore to WSG $15.3m and on June 26, 2009, $10.276m in two separate installments.
