PSL newcomers need millions to upgrade home ground
NEWLY promoted Cape Town side Chippa United require R15m urgently to refurbish their Philippi Stadium home ground or risk an uncertain future in the Premier Soccer League (PSL).
United owner Siviwe “Chippa” Mpengesi told Business Day yesterday that the club could be forced to forfeit the use of the fortress that helped the side secure promotion to the South African topflight early this month as Philippi Stadium does not meet several PSL requirements.
“We have a 40-year lease at Philippi Stadium and we are becoming desperate because the venue does not comply with the PSL standards,” he said yesterday.
“Firstly, we have to raise funds to fix the (flood) lights because they are not up to the broadcasters’ and the television requirements.
“And that is just the tip of the iceberg among the other things that also have to be fixed at the stadium,” Mpengesi said.
They also have to fix broadcasting facilities, the print media facilities, the ticketing area, meeting rooms, and also upgrade the security among a host of associated costs.
United could be forced to move to Athlone Stadium if they are not able to raise the funds and rectify these shortcomings at Philippi.
Athlone was used by Santos — who were relegated to the lower tier this month — last season and United run the risk of losing the close-knit relationship they had with the local community in Philippi.
Mpengesi’s club has enjoyed big support in Philippi and losing that vocal advantage from the stands could have serious repercussion by the end of the campaign in May.
“It will costs us if we go to Athlone, it’s that simple,” he said.
United won promotion to the premiership after they beat city neighbours Santos 4-3 at a packed Philippi Stadium this month.
Their promotion completed a fairytale ascendency to the topflight as the 35-year-old Mpengesi had bought the side for just R400 000 two years earlier.
The club also confirmed the meteoric rise of Mpengesi, who was born in Ngqamakwe, a small town in the Eastern Cape. He was reportedly working at a R900-a-month job and living in a one-room shack only nine years ago.
His salary bill at United when the club was playing in the lower tier last season was about R300 000 a month. The PSL awards lower-tier sides aR200 000 monthly grant and he paid the remaining R100 000 out of his own pocket. But promotion will help ease the burden as the PSL awards a R14m grant to each of the 16 topflight sides every year.
United will be marketed as a Cape side — the Eastern Cape and Western Cape — and Mpengesi hopes to play topflight matches in Mthatha, Port Elizabeth and East London at some stage during the campaign.
“As the Eastern Cape does not have a club playing in the PSL, we are ready to fill that space because after all I am from Ngqamakwe.”
The Eastern Cape has not had a team in the premiership team since Port Elizabeth side Bay United was relegated in 2009. This has largely contributed to Port Elizabeth’s decision to host premiership teams from other province at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in a bid to ensure that the World Cup venue remains active.
But United are struggling to attract some of the glamour players in South African football because of their lack of a sponsorship.
“We are appealing to sponsors in the Western and Eastern Cape to come on board because we are a club with a lot of ambition.
“They (sponsors) will get a huge support base and a massive return on their investment because we are not in the premiership just to make up the numbers.”