Proposed 16-team league: PLE needs close to E1m to sustain it
AN increase of the country’s top league teams to 16 has dire financial consequences.
Should the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) go ahead with this proposed increase for next season, it will have a negative impact on the organisation’s coffers.
“How much do you think are the running costs for the current league? The PLE is strained as the available administration costs are just over E300 000 and I am sure even the PLE Executive knows it’s way too little as they spend more in the end,” said an impeccable source.
Investigations into the running costs of the current league, which has a champions’ prize of just E1 million, showed the availed administration costs are settled at E320 000. It has recently been reported by national media that the PLE is aiming at having teams increase from the current 14 to 16 next season. However, this is nothing official yet as it must be one of the proposals for the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) to look at in their upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) later this year.
It was said such a move would help the performance of the senior national team, Sihlangu, as more games would be played. However, it would also mean an increased expenditure for the PLE if not an increased sponsorship package to accommodate the two added teams.
The PLE pays participation fees to the 14 elite clubs calculated at E90 000 bilut because of match allowances fees, each elite club gets E70 000 all season. The 14 teams share E980 000 in participation fees when excluding the Referees allowances. Such are said to go up to over E5 000 weekly, taking the required expense way above E500 000 in the end to close to E1 million.
“Two teams will mean an additional E180 000 when our sponsorship package is fixed. This means the PLE must cough out that money when already, it is struggling with match officials’ travel claims which dig deep into the office’s not-so-stable finances,” said another source from a top position in one of the elite teams.
PLE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Makhanya did not deny the E320 000 as money available to run the current league. He also affirmed that PLE was paying out match officials’ travel claims.
It was also established that each official claims E3.50 for a kilometre undertaken.
“The PLE covers all referees’ claims regardless of gate collections,” responded the CEO when asked if clubs contributed to the added travel claims of match officials.
Correct
“It’s also correct that we pay E3.50 for a travelled kilometre, and that money is paid by the office,” he said.
Makhanya would not delve into the 16team league issue but acknowledged that the current running costs of E320 000 were not enough due to the added claims.
It is also an open secret that only fewer games make a substantive collection in the PLE fixtures all season. These are the big sides like Mbabane Highlanders and Mbabane Swallows as well as Moneni Pirates and the security forces at times, especially during the security forces derbies and against the capital city giants.
Meanwhile, this purported proposal to increase teams has been met with varying opinions by sports scribes and the general public.
The general feeling is that it makes no sense as there is not enough money to compete even for the 14 teams. Most argue about shortage of playing venues, lack of resources to subsidize the financially struggling teams including even nig sides like Manzini Wanderers, Moneni Pirates and Denver Sundowns. At times, even teams like Highlanders and Swallows have made headlines for all the wrong reasons as players’ salaries would be delayed.
Just last year, Young Buffaloes had to withdraw in the eleventh hour from the Totalenergies CAF Confederation Cup due to its expensive travel costs which would require over E1m for just the two preliminary round matches played in a home and away format.
Buffaloes would also have had to rent a Stadium for nothing less E150 000 to host South Africa’s Sekhukhune United who got a bye after the withdrawal to move on to face Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rivals.
It remains to be seen if the 16-team proposal will come to pass. Worth noting is that others were quick to note that such would be an attempt to rescue some big teams from relegation. Clubs like Sundowns, Ezulwini United, Manzini Wanderers, and Moneni Pirates are all fighting a fierce relegation battle with just five games left before the season is over.