Tsichlas plea: Release fees

The suggestion that an item of one sort or another is no more than a drop in the ocean usually tends to be immersed in a degree of exaggeration.

Not so when you compare the staggering R3.3 billion record transfer fee that French club PSG have just paid FC Barcelona for the services of Brazilian prodigy Neymar with the top transfer fees recorded for star footballers in South Africa.

It has been estimated that the largest amount yet recorded for the move of a player in the PSL is somewhere between R10 million and R15 million and the club involved as a buyer is billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s Mamelodi Sundowns.

But the exact details in this instance and similar others are not confirmed because it has become an ingrained habit of South African clubs to answer all queries on transfer fees with the non-committal response that it is “a private matter”.

It is doubtful whether this is in fact true according to two prominent South African football officials, who have been involved in both ends of the scale as top club administrators and leading officials in Safa or the PSL, who believe it would be better all-round to make transfer fees here released in accordance with world trends for what would be beneficial for the football fraternity and public all-round.

The PSL’s Professor Ronnie Schloss, who previously served as president of Bidvest Wits University, believes the South African Constitution makes it mandatory for information of public interest to be dispensed – and this would be confirmed for anyone prepared to take such a matter to a court of law.

Head of Safa’s technical committee, Nastasia Tsichlas, who was previously a part-owner of Sundowns and the club’s CEO, believes the release of transfer fees would add interest in football matters insofar as the overall public is concerned.

“It would stimulate discussion and the talking point would in turn boost attendances,” she added. “I believe the benefits associated with making transfer fees public outweigh anything that might assist clubs from keeping secret the amounts they are paying out or receiving for transfers.”

Meanwhile, it remains mum when amounts involving several million rand might be concerned – even though world trends have now extended beyond what might admittedly be above a grossly excessive billion-rand mark.

It would stimulate discussion and the talking point would in turn boost attendances. Nastasia Tsichlas Safa Technical Committee