Don’t bank on Absa sponsorship

Banking group will end their deal with the elite league at the end of this season

IT never rains but it pours.

Just as the football fraternity was hugely anticipating a solution to the halted domestic season, the Premier Soccer League 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 during the beginning of the 2006/07 season as the Castle Premiership became the Absa Premiership

“While we will no longer be the anchor sponsor for the PSL, soccer will always remain close to our hearts.

“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,” said Daniel Mminele, chief executive of Absa Group.

Reports that the Absa would be pulling out of the PSL surfaced early this year, amid speculation that the banking group have hit financial turbulence as they’ll also be forced to retrench some of their staff members.

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 R10-million to a whopping R15m, while runners-up were set to pocket R7.5m after initially bagging R5m.

Moreover, the new development somewhat deters the federation’s progress, especially after the PSL announced late last year that they’ve made a revenue of R1-Billion 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.

“The PSL is grateful to Absa for strengthening the league to true professionalism,” said PSL chairman Irvin Khoza in the statement.

The timing of this announcement comes at the worst time for the federation, considering the domestic season has been halted following the outbreak of coronavirus early in March.

While the latest reports suggested that the PSL was 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” protocols, there could be more twists and turns in the next few months.

Declaring the season null and void could be one of the wisest things to do, considering that the

PSL could save some money and pay back sponsors – including Absa, Nedbank and SuperSport – for the past two months.

In the bigger scheme of things, they’ll then turn their focus on looking at all the bids for a new sponsor.

From thereon, clubs will be able to release players whose contracts are coming to an end this month – saving a vast sum of money following the devastating state the coronavirus has brought to the economy.

While there’s no doubt that the PSL remains one of the biggest brands in Africa, this must be the worst time for South African football. And it is now that bold decisions should be made.