Major sponsor calls time on PSL partnership

IT never rains, but it pours.

Just as the football fraternity was anticipating a solution to the halted domestic season, the PSL is facing yet another major crisis.

Yesterday, the PSL abruptly announced that their deal with chief sponsor Absa will come to an end when the season concludes, following a 16-year partnership that started at the beginning of the 2006-07 season.

“While we will no longer be the anchor sponsor for the PSL, soccer will always remain close to our hearts,” said Daniel Mminele, chief executive of Absa Group.

“We are therefore exploring alternative options to continue our relationship with the PSL. We would like to thank the PSL and the football community for the excellent partnership and support over the years.”

Reports that Absa would be pulling out of the PSL surfaced early this year, amid speculation that the banking group are in financial trouble as they will also be forced to retrench some of their staff.

That came as a shock to the members of the football fraternity, especially after the bank recently increased the seasonal cheque for eventual champions early this season from R10million to a whopping R15m, while the runners-up are set to pocket R7.5m after initially bagging R5m.

Moreover, the new development somewhat deters the league’s progress, especially after the PSL announced late last year that they had made a revenue of R1billion during the 2018-19 financial year, while Absa were supposedly making a contribution of over R100m per season.

“The Absa Premiership era will forever be a reference point for football glory, both in terms of club development and player performance in our sports history,” said PSL chairman Irvin Khoza in the statement.

“The PSL is grateful to Absa for strengthening the league to true professionalism.”

The timing of the announcement comes at the worst possible time for the league, considering the domestic season has been halted following the outbreak of Covid-19 in South Africa in early March.

While the latest

reports

suggest that the PSL were keen to conclude the campaign especially after the joint liaison committee selected task team gave recommendations that the season should continue under a “massive single camp”, there could be more twists and turns in the next few months.

Declaring this season null and void could be one of the wisest things to do, considering that the PSL could save money and pay back sponsors – including Absa, Nedbank and SuperSport – for the past two months.

In the bigger scheme of things, they can then turn their focus to looking for a new sponsor.