PSL salaries safe for now
Every Premier Soccer League club paid their players full salaries for the month of March. But league chair Irvin Khoza says that monthly grants not guaranteed
● The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has not considered the issue of salary pay cuts for players yet.
In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, major leagues around the world, including the Spanish La Liga and English Premier League, have been suspended.
Premier League clubs are in talks with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) over a 30% player-pay deferral plan.
Leading clubs such as Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Juventus and Atletico Madrid have announced various salary cuts to deal with the effects of Covid-19.
PSL chair Irvin Khoza told the Sunday Times yesterday that clubs had not taken measures that will see players’ salaries slashed during the suspension.
“At the moment, we don’t want to cloud the space in these 21 days of lockdown. For now, it’s all about the messaging ... that adherence to the basic health issues. On April 21 we’ll have discussions with the president of Safa [Danny Jordaan] and all other issues will be discussed there.”
Khoza said all PSL clubs paid their players full salaries at the end of March. However, he said the R2,5m monthly grants that each PSL team receives were not guaranteed.
“Well there’s no guarantee. Our revenues are affected by playing, the clubs’ revenue streams are linked to playing. If you’re not playing, it gives to other issues, but for now we’ve managed to pay players. We’re evaluating the situation as it moves on.”
Khoza added it was important for the PSL to preach the same language the government is spreading about the importance of hygiene and social distancing because that links to when playing matches may resume in SA.
“The debate for us is how to amplify the voice of the government in making sure that people stick to the basics of hygiene. That’s why I don’t want to have any discussions about the scenarios [on the future of the current season]. This is the moment to deal with the directive by the state president.
“So we must come on board, hence my take that ‘listen to understand and never listen to answer’.”
Planning for what will happen in the coming months has proved to be a difficult task. “Planning counts for nothing because you’re planning for what when people are dead,” asked Khoza.
“We must make it easy for the government to deal with the challenges. So let’s not try and interpret or excuse ourselves by saying ‘this thing [Covid-19] is not meant for me’. It can’t be right. For now, let’s just comply because we don’t know what we’re talking about.”
Khoza said the second and third week of the lockdown will be the most challenging.
“What happens during that period will inform what we’ll discuss with Safa on April 21.
“That discussion will inform what steps we take going forward. We’ve got some guidelines from Fifa and central to them is the health issue in consultation with the government.”
The SA Players’ Union president Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe confirmed all PSL clubs were paid their March salaries with the exception of Royal Eagles [in the National First Division], which has been battling financially since the start of the season.
“I spoke with the league this week and they’ll come back to us after their meetings [April 21] on the future of the current season and all other issues pertaining to that,” said
Gaoshubelwe.
“The only concerning issue is that of Eagles, where there are players who didn’t get their salaries. That’s the matter that we’re busy with. Other than that we’ve not received any complaints, but we’re engaging all the clubs to find out if there are issues.”
Safa acting CEO Gay Mokoena echoed Khoza, saying they’ll meet with the PSL. Mokoena added that they had no idea whether Bafana Bafana’s next Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Ghana will go ahead on June 1. “We haven’t heard from either Caf or Fifa regarding the future of Afcon qualifiers, but we’ll talk about these issues after the lockdown.”
Saying this thing isn’t meant for me can’t be right
Irvin Khoza PSL chairman