‘Minnow’ sides show they deserve so much better

THE OPENING round of the Nedbank Cup produced two big upsets. Amateur sides KwaDukuza United and Acornbush United eliminated Ajax Cape Town and Cape Town City respectively, while EC Bees pushed Orlando Pirates, though they ultimately lost 3-1.

Those matches were just a reminder of how much talent is there in the lower leagues, which has been helped by the education of coaches. The Safa coaching courses have nurtured a number of upcoming coaches who ply their trade with teams in the lower divisions.

That was a good move, because the more empowered the coaches are, the better equipped they are to manage clubs and the talents who are coming through. This past weekend showed how tactically organised teams from the amateur ranks are. Those who played against top teams weren’t outplayed, but held their own – and in some cases exceeded expectations. Now that we seem to have the coaching of coaches part on lock down, we need to start ensuring that the large amounts of money invested in top flight football trickles down.

The biggest problem with our football is that a lot of money is at the top, leaving those at the bottom to feed on crumbs. It’s criminal that the winner of the First Division (NFD) is paid less than the sum Premier Division clubs get in their monthly grants. In fact, the winners of the ABC Motsepe League receive more money than the NFD champions.

But the R1-million in prize money in the ABC Motsepe League is misleading, because it gives you the impression that clubs there are well taken care of, which is far from the truth.

Once again most of the money goes to the top, the winner of the league in this instance, while those at the bottom fight for scraps.

A better model shouldn’t have been to only increase the prize money, but to ensure that the over 100 clubs in the ABC Motsepe League get at least enough money to be managed better. The millions that Patrice Motsepe invested in the league are welcomed, but the cash injection doesn’t cover all the expenses that clubs incur. Running a club in the lower division is an expensive exercise that sees club bosses foot the bills.

That’s why corruption is so widespread in that league – because people are prepared to do anything to get promoted from it, and those who are there are easy prey for corrupt activities, because there is just not enough money.

Things won’t drastically change overnight, but we need to at least try. A good start would be to take better care of the NFD and then go to the lower leagues because the Premier Division is nothing without those competitions. They are the foundation and the breeding ground for the talent that shines in top flight football. The better we take care of the lower leagues, the higher our standard will be, because we won’t have players falling by the wayside, and those that are there will be driven by decent remuneration.