Secret Footballer

Steve Komphela’s leaked resignation letter from Bloemfontein Celtic in December exposed some of the many problems behind the scenes at Phunya Sele Sele. This month’s Secret Footballer believes the club’s players need to start sorting out their future now

This month’s Secret Footballer weighs in on the mess at Bloemfontein Celtic while sharing a word of advice with the current Siwelele players.

There must be a lot of frustration building up in the Bloemfontein Celtic camp right now regarding the club’s future. I know because I also went through a similar situation at different PSL clubs. When you go through this, the first thing that comes to mind is: do I keep training and continue playing for this club, or do I pack my bags and leave? You become negative and the negativity starts spreading through the group because there is nothing positive to talk about in the dressing room. Celtic’s former coach Steve Komphela did not make the situation any better with his resignation letter which was leaked because he was a big motivator to most of the players at the club. For him to leave the way he did made it very difficult for players, and would have destroyed their morale. Right now players just want to play so that they can attract interest from somewhere else; the priority is no longer about the success of the club, it’s about the players trying to market themselves in order to get out of the situation. If I was at Bloemfontein Celtic and saw the resignation letter sent by Steve, I would have also left immediately. He was the one motivating the players, but when things got bad he was the first one to jump ship. As a player I would have said, ‘If the person who said things will be fine starts leaving, it means I have to leave as well’. Yes, Steve made a decision for his career, but I also felt he let down the players that were looking up to him. But I don’t really blame him because his best option was to leave and go to a club where he would not be going through what he was enduring at Celtic. Anyone who has a family would have done exactly the same thing. I don’t blame him for that, but it’s unfortunate he had to leave the boys that looked up to him. It’s also in the middle of the season and the players have contracts with the club, so they can’t just pack their bags and leave. If any player tries to force a move out, you know clubs can be spiteful, so that player might not get his contract and should might as well stay and hope to be bought next season. When some players go to work and don’t get paid, they take their frustrations out by drinking alcohol and staying out late. Other players withstand the situation and go through whatever the team is going through without misbehaving. Every player is different. Some coaches will be understanding and talk to the players while some will just ignore the underlying problem and just stop playing the guys who are misbehaving. When I look at the situation, the only way this will come to an end is for Max Tshabalala to sell the team. If he does not sell the team, the season won’t end well. I’m sure that he already wishes the season would end now because he doesn’t have the money to run the club until May. If he sells the club, he must tell the future owner how much he owes the players so that they can take over the debt. If the new owners do not take over the existing debt, it will mean that the club is indebted to players, unless they change the name of the team like Moroka Swallows did. You then can’t sue anyone in that regard which itself is unfair practise, but these guys are desperate and are only thinking about their own situation. This is when the PSL and Safa need to get involved so that whoever buys the club ensures that money will go towards paying what is owed to players. This is a very sad and serious situation and I hope these footballers get help from the Players Union now because if they are only hoping to seek help at the end of the season, it might be too late.