Who is fooling who in the latest big cash spat?

In a normal world, the injection of a R50m sponsorship into the barren coffers of the South African Football Association (Safa) should be a cause for celebration by all in the football fraternity.

For many years the stench of scandal has left sponsors unwilling to touch Safa.

But ours is anything but a normal football sphere. Safa sprung a surprise on the PSL by the five-year marriage between OUTsurance and Safa, the organisation that governs soccer in this country.

Furthermore, the league is of the idea that Safa were duty-bound to inform them of the relationship as opposed to them reading about it in the media.

In a normal world Safa and the PSL will operate as two sides of the same coin as opposed to apparent competing entities working against each other.

There is definitely no need for this drama which only serves to distract from the main business of football. Common courtesy dictates that in their pursuance of a partnership with their new sponsor, Safa could have informed the PSL in light of the fact that those referees will be promoted on a platform of a PSL product.

The biggest challenge is that these guys don’t talk to each other. They behave like political parties standing in opposition to one another. For instance, there is a structure called the PSL-Safa joint liaison committee.

It is a body supposed to provide a platform of the meeting of the minds from both sides and enable them to sing from the same hymn book.

This joint liaison committee has been in abeyance since the new Safa council was voted in at its elective conference three months a ago. The PSL is not represented on committee and visa versa, which creates a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

The confusion around this situation is

It’s been a case of the tail wagging the dog instead of the other way around

that for many years it has been a case of the tail wagging the dog when it should be the other way around.

Safa is in charge of the game. But it is no fault of the PSL that it has grown into a multibillion rand organisation to a point of outshining the national association in all aspects that have to do with revenue raising.

In this regard Absa is the principal funder of the PSL and any sponsor that comes in will get coverage piggybacking on a stage they’ve created. To this end the new entrant is going to get coverage of referees running around on television in the middle of the pitch in distinct avocado and brinjal colours.

Absa placed the following facts on the record yesterday:“1. We do not interfere in the administration of football or any other sporting code we sponsor;

“2. To the extent that any sporting code or body we support through sponsorship has a disagreement with any other party, it is their responsibility to resolve such disagreement;

“3. As a sponsor of the Absa Premiership, we can only protect our rights in terms of the legal agreements we have in place.

“We believe that a good working relationship between the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the South African Football Association (Safa) is in the best interest of football in the country. Accordingly, we urge the PSL and Safa to resolve the matter in a manner that works for all parties concerned.”

As TimesLIVE reported yesterday, OUTsurance approached the PSL and the league’s broadcasters‚ SuperSport International‚ last year about sponsoring a TV programme on referees. This was declined by SuperSport and the PSL on the basis that it could diminish the rights of existing sponsorships.

A reason was that it would be televised in the time that was part of existing sponsorship arrangements.

Absa is apparently of the view that as the headline sponsor the company promotes the PSL‚ and that OUTsurance sponsoring referees leverages that promotion to some extent.

Absa would be willing to waive such rights in special circumstances. However, the company had the OUTsurance sponsorship of referees sprung on it as a surprise on Monday.

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