What the Siya crew has been told…

The Siya crew has been led to believe that the South African Football Player’s Union (SAFPU) has been suspended by FIFPro for maladministration.

Indications are that things are not being managed well at the offices of the union and they have come under fire from FIFPro to get their house in order. According to information received by the Siya crew, SAFPU have been suspended by FIFPro for close to a month and they have managed to keep it under wraps throughout this time.

FIFPro prides itself as a voice for professional footballers all over the world and works with their respective national unions, to address challenges the players face.

SAFPU receives a grant from FIFPro, believed to be every three months, for them to run their union and support the needs of the players.

According to a source that was speaking to the Siya crew on condition of anonymity, SAFPU have been mishandling the grants that they get from FIFPro. What’s more, our source revealed that there are some players who have had to pay SAFPU to represent them in cases involving unpaid salaries and unfair dismissals.

“From what I hear, they have been suspended by FIFPro for mismanagement of funds and maladministration. So, they get funding from FIFPro to run the organization. With that funding, they are supposed to take care of everything, including paying for the lawyers who are representing the players that belong to SAFPU,” a source said to the Siya crew.

“So, what they do is that once they win cases, they charge players and that’s against the constitution of FIFPro and all the affiliates. They are trying to sweep everything under the carpet, and I am sure if one was to dig deeper, you would be able to bring things into light. Obviously, something like this is a big concern because players are a big priority, and they have to be protected. If we cannot protect the players, then what will happen to our players in the country? There are players who got charged (by SAFPU) after winning claims. The concern is when players have to pay, which is obviously not good because the players are the ones who need to be protected.”

According to information received by the Siya crew, there is a lawyer that SAFPU owes from a case. The Siya crew was made aware of the lawyer’s name and, in fact, made attempts to get in touch with him, but another informant gave more information on the matter.

“The lawyer is not likely to entertain you as part of the lawyer-client confidentiality. But I believe that the lawyer that they owe has reported them to FIFPro. The cases of the players were not attended to for quite some time because the lawyer did not want to work because of the money owed to him. They did not pay him until the lawyer wrote to FIFPro. As we speak, they are not using that lawyer anymore,” the source said.

“They were also suspended because of the late congress that they held in 2022. The congress should be held every four years, so they took about five years or so. They did not inform FIFPro about that. In the constitution of FIFPro, it should be every four years. When a player gets an award of, let’s say R200 000, they take a certain percentage, and they are not supposed to do that because they are getting a grant from FIFPro. That’s against the constitution of FIFPro. If I am not mistaken, they will be suspended until the 1st of July and FIFPro will not give them any support to correct things. If they don’t correct that, their membership will be taken away. There is a grant that they are getting, which is every quarter.”

The Siya crew made various attempts to get hold of FIFPro, via both telephone and email, but there was no response from them by the time of going to print.

In trying to get in touch with FIFPro, the Siya crew’s aim was to find out what exactly the alleged suspension entails and what they need to provide to have the suspension lifted. There was no response from FIFPro.