Benni to get R2m Usuthu payout?

As the Siya crew revealed when reporting that coach Benni McCarthy had parted ways with AmaZulu FC last week, the ex-Bafana Bafana striker still had another year left on his contract with the club.

The mutual termination, as confirmed by the club, means that McCarthy is entitled to a settlement, which would have been agreed on when he put pen to paper on a deal with the Durban-based outfit from December 2020 to June 2023.

Indications are that there was a six-month settlement agreement in his contract, signed and sealed at the time to bring him back to the Premier Soccer League and take over from then coach Alan Freese, which would be a payout of over R2 million.

However, it’s unclear if the sixmonth payout will be enforced based on mutual consent to part ways.

Soccer Laduma had also reported last year when McCarthy was being touted for the Bafana head coach job that SAFA would have had to pay AmaZulu a compensation of around the same figure.

But the federation went for Hugo Broos instead, after not seeing eyeto-eye with McCarthy’s representatives.

This suggests that the monies owed would have gone both ways – that should McCarthy be fired, Usuthu would be liable to give him R2 million, while the expectation was that the former Blackburn Rovers striker would also pay that amount to the club if he resigned or walked away without the separation being amicable.

McCarthy has since been replaced by Brandon Truter, who takes over as interim coach until the end of the season.

It’s understood McCarthy was one of the top-earning coaches in the PSL given his profile and the mandate he’d been given by club president Sandile Zungu, hence the compensation clauses were also agreed to in advance.