By now Finance Minister Trevor Manuel must be conceding — privately — his allegation that Absa corruptly won the right to use its name for the premiership championship was as hasty as it was uninformed.
At a media briefing on Tuesday the Premier Soccer League (PSL) dismissed out of hand that some of its executive committee members had received or stood to receive a 10% commission from the R500-million sponsorship deal it clinched with the banking group.
It also said clubs had accepted the principle of paying commission to those who helped secure such revenue streams as early as 2001. For this reason auditing firm Deloitte would be given the task of working out the best ways of doing this without compromising good governance practices. Only then would an announcement be made about whether the negotiating committee would be entitled to a commission and, if so, its size.
The recording of a previous meeting played at the media briefing suggested that matters were much more nuanced than Manuel’s gung-ho approach suggested.
In the recording John Comitis, the Ajax Cape Town owner, raised his objection about the payment of commissions and he remained consistent on his position at Tuesday’s briefing.
Jomo Sono, who has used his stature as a football great and a club owner to lead the moral condemnation for the commissions being paid, is not heard once in the recording, implying that he either acquiesced or was absent and unrepresented when the matter was raised.
Manuel’s argument that sports sponsorships should not benefit any individual at the expense of the sporting code is indisputable.
But, given all that has been made public, unless Manuel and others opposed to the payment of commissions tell us why we should not believe a word of what the PSL had to say this week, the finance minister must accept that he was hopelessly ill-informed about the deal and the different roles played by the league and the South African Football Association.
Businesses, and the PSL is no exception, reward those who help increase their revenue and commercial attractiveness.
The recording disclosed that the potential size of the commission had been discussed when the league decided on a new strategy to seek sponsorship revenue.
”The board of governors resolved not to outsource the negotiation of such transactions in the best interests of the PSL as, firstly, the commission payable could be ‘capped’ and would be substantially less than that payable to outside consultants and, secondly, the members conducting the negotiations had extensive expertise and experience of soccer to ensure the best possible deal was concluded.”
It is possible that Manuel knew more than he was letting on when he made his extraordinary remarks. But until there is actual proof of malfeasance, it would help to disabuse ourselves of the afro-pessimism that football is capable of running a clean and successful operation.