Time the Premier Soccer League put a limit on the size of squads

Carl Peters

LOOKING at updated squad lists that the PSL has released, it does not appear to be a case of less is more for the 16 topflight clubs in the land.

Many seem to have far more players on their books than is necessary from both a financial and utility perspective, even if one allows room for a few youngsters to make a name for themselves.

Some clubs may even be trying to close the market with huge signing sprees that include budding stars, but it must be a headache for their coaches to deal with so many men in training on a daily basis.

It is incredible that Pirates, for example, have 51 players registered with the PSL, according to the football body’s media release. Some players, clearly, will have to wait ages for game time, given the ob- viously-long pecking order that exists in massive squads.

It might be a good idea for the PSL to limit squad sizes in future, and the subsequent cost saving by clubs could be used for much-needed marketing initiatives to increase the scandalously-poor crowd averages, among other things.

Clubs surely don’t need to register more than two players per in-field position, three goalkeepers and a couple of utility men.

What are Pirates and newly-promoted Highlands Park doing with more than half-a-ton of players?

This contrasts hugely with Bloem Celtic and Polokwane City having 27 men each in the smallest squads around.

Elsewhere, in alphabetical order, Ajax have 33, Baroka 33, Wits 32, Cape Town City 41, Chippa 32, Free State Stars 30, Golden Arrows 33, Kaizer Chiefs 31, Mamelodi Sundowns 31, Maritzburg 30, Platinum Stars 33 and SuperSport 30.

In addition to these already large figures, clubs can still sign free agents during the season and, during the next transfer window in January, they can change all five foreigners on their books if they so wish.

By far, manpower is the biggest expense for clubs, most of which have meagre facilities for admin and training purposes despite them being pro- fessional in name, but lowering squad costs could help them put money into other areas that have a longer lifespan.

For example, clubs would be able to spend an extra R20 000 or more on marketing initiatives every month for every player reduction if the PSL were to consider imposing a limit on registrations.

Many players earn far more than R20 000, but this “saving” estimate seems a practical one to use because the lower paid and lesser experienced squad members would likely be fewer in number in the event of a rule change.

Marketing is certainly a critical issue, in the light of the paltry bums on seats at so many matches. The basic quality of PSL football may need great improvement over time to bring back fans to stadiums, but the short-term issue is that clubs should do far more to add a few thousand to existing crowd averages.

The state of the economy and widespread TV coverage of global football may be stumbling blocks, but too many clubs seem to rely on the PSL’s vast media coverage as a key form of marketing matches, knowing that media outlets have to cover the sport for their own ends.

It is obvious that most club officials need to be far more aggressive when it comes to fan-tastic activations.

Their football entities are bound to remain small in stature should they persist with the very narrow business approach wherein TV revenues minus player salaries equals profit.