What are the facts?

SAFPU has been a member of FIFPro since 2002 and, throughout the years, have been working on the cases of players, as part of their work to ensure players are paid salaries and have proper protection when they are unfairly dismissed.

With the grant received by SAFPU from FIFPro, the money is meant to cover costs of paying for the cases they get involved in to help the players.

In 2022, SAFPU held their congress in Cape Town, where Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe was reelected president of the union for another term. The congress was initially meant to be held in 2021, with the previous one having been conducted in 2017. The congress is meant to be held every four years, but SAFPU had come out to say that they could not hold the congress in 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

It’s believed that they did not inform FIFPro about this, which is one of the reasons the union is currently suspended, as revealed by insiders.

A few months ago, meanwhile, the FIFPro General Assembly was held in Cape Town, from 21-24 November 2023.

During the general assembly, transparent and constructive dialogue was encouraged during the four-day event, especially on FIFPro’s future structures and processes, in order to best serve organisational goals and member objectives moving forward.

The annual event enables FIFPro and member unions to align on global strategy and reflect on work done to help players in the previous 12 months.

The Siya crew spoke to a top agent in South Africa to get their expert opinion on the alleged suspension of SAFPU. For obvious reasons, the agent will remain anonymous.

“I obviously don’t know exactly what is happening at SAFPU, but I can speak from the point of the organization having to make sure that they protect the players. That’s the most important thing because the players are the ones who play the game and to hear about an alleged suspension is not good at all for the game. But they would obviously have to come out and tell us what exactly is happening because they are a trusted organization that represents the interests of the players.

I actually hope that none of this is true because we need them to be in good standing and to keep improving our game. That’s why the union is there. It’s important that South African football is always growing, not only on the pitch, but in the boardrooms as well.”