The story behind the scenes

Club chairman paints a clear picture

Maritzburg United chairman Farrok Kadodia confirms that financial difficulties have forced clubs into the new approach.

“Yeah, I think it’s a fruitful approach and we need to have a new generation of players because clubs can’t afford (to keep experienced players) because their incomes are growing while being with clubs for six, seven, eight years.

For clubs, it is certainly impossible to run a football business with the same income (PSL grant) every year, while there are demands to improve every year and all the cots that come with it. You can’t keep all the players every year, unless your income increases to improve the business.

“Our budgets in the football business always grow whenever there is an increase in income. Unfortunately, for the last nine years there has been no increase in income, unless we sell players.

“And COVID definitely has affected football and undoubtedly, we have suffered between 30% and 40% loss of our income. PostCOVID, I think we need all the stakeholders in the country, including the government, to help football to make sure that football people can survive and that the Beautiful Game of football can always grow and bring the colourful side of it that people want to see.

“But despite all the challenges, I think the government is playing an important and integral role here in supporting the clubs whether that has to do with infrastructure or whatever it is to get fans back to the stadiums.”

SAFPU perplexed…

The South African Football Players Union (SAFPU) deputy general secretary, Calvin Motloung, has questioned the new landscape.

“What the clubs are doing to players is not right as our belief is that when a player has a contract, that contract should be honoured. When a club has to cut costs, why must it be the players that get affected?

“Why can’t the bosses cut costs by looking elsewhere to reduce whatever is there to be minimized at their clubs? It is a very unfair behaviour towards the players. We always preach that both the employer and the employee have to respect the contracts. What is worse and concerning to us as the Union is that some of the players are being released while injured.

“Players are our bosses, and we agree to whatever they want us to do for them, hence we ask them to come forward whenever there are issues affecting them. We don’t understand why age must be used against players and their income.

“You sign a 27-year-old on a three-year contract knowing very well that by the time that deal ends he will be 30, but at the age of 29, you deem that very same player to be out of the age requirement at your club. It is puzzling.

“Players should be judged on performance and not their age. At what age was Teko Modise discovered? Players mature very late in this country and that’s how things have always been, unfortunately. When a boy is 22 or 23, he is deemed to be young and not ready in the PSL.

“Somewhere somehow, there are people who don’t do their jobs at these clubs.”

Agent worried for players’ livelihoods

Local football agent Siya Mareke of Yo-Boy Management is worried that the changes are likely to have negative effects on the livelihoods of the players.

“We, as the agents, are seeing what is happening as being unfair on players. Most South African players are late bloomers, and they mature from 23 years old and above. In most cases, we see the best of our players when they turn 28 or 29.

“Where was Mpho Makola when he was 22? Where was Teko Modise when he was 22? They were not in the PSL. Clubs releasing players because of age is unfair, because in SA football, these players are at their prime and doing well. I am not happy with the clubs cutting players’ salaries.

“If I can make an example about AmaZulu FC, some players there were released because of age, according to my understanding, but the very same club has brought in former (Mamelodi) Sundowns and Chiefs player Ramahlwe Mphahlele. How old is Mphahlele? I mean, you just released Luvuyo Memela and you sign Mphahlele and, to me, it doesn’t make sense if clubs are talking about age.

“It would be good if all the clubs could follow what Cape Town City and a few other teams are doing in promoting young players and giving them opportunities to play. Stellenbosch FC is also doing it, and in fact, Cape Town clubs have always done it since the days of Ajax Cape Town with the likes of Keagan Dolly, Khama Billiat, Thulani Serero and Thulani Hlatshwayo, among others.

“We need to see young stars like Chiefs’ Mduduzi Shabalala getting opportunities and it is right when done in that way. But replacing an older player with a player of almost the same age just because he probably comes cheap does not make sense.

“These changes by clubs should be done in a right way. These players are accustomed to certain ways of living, and they have dependents. Some guys are still paying for their cars, while others are paying for their siblings’ fees at university and so on. If you tell them that it is a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, where does that leave them?”