What the Siya crew has been told…

FIFA has, over the last 20 years, developed systems that includes the Kinect ID service, transfer matching system and the FIFA clearinghouse that are all geared to ensure that training rewards, solidarity payments and training compensation are paid to the clubs that develop a player between the ages of 12 and 21 if that player goes on to play professionally.

History has shown that those fees are not paid very often – it is approximately 10% of the time globally and far less than that in Africa.

Earlier in September, FIFA released the latest transfer figures, which show that Africa and African clubs in particular remain rooted at the bottom by all measures. FIFA reported that in the 2023 mid-year transfer window – June to September –the total spending on men’s international transfer fees was up by about 50% from 2022. However, transfer revenue generated by African clubs remains flat and last among confederations where data was available.

By comparison, Conmebol transferred a similar number of players “out” (1245 players) compared to CAF (1115 players) but had 10 times the amount of receipts totaling nearly $487.7 million (±R9.2b), which is in stark contrast to Africa’s $45.4 million (±R864 million).

It’s clear that there is immense talent in Africa by how much talent is moving out of the continent. However, there is very little money flowing back to African clubs as compared to the rest of the world.

The stats prove that there are (at least) two problems: 1) African clubs are generally not compensated, and 2) our players are undervalued.

These are the two problems that Inqaku and MYSAFA aim to address.

While South African amateur outfits are yet to receive payments from professional clubs for training and development using the MYSAFA platform, there are hundreds of claims that have been made by clubs, which could result in local clubs earning millions depending on the transfer of players.

The Siya crew reached out to Jason Anderson, Inqaku COO, who confirmed that the process of claiming is underway thanks to the MYSAFA platform.

“I don’t believe any South African clubs have been paid yet via the clearinghouse, but there’s been hundreds of claims made for players in South Africa based on the electronic player passports that are captured in MYSAFA, and that happens on an almost daily basis. There are a legal team behind these process and whenever they receive a claim, they write to SAFA and oftentimes write to us at the same time. We then share what information we have in MYSAFA for the player and even though it’s not yet flowing through in an automatic way and being paid automatically by the clearinghouse, which is what everybody is working towards … FIFA at the top of the list … the data that’s in our in our system is still significant because it is centralized.”