Andrew Muchineripi Soccer
It is unfortunate that at a time when South African soccer should be presenting a united front to the world, cracks are appearing in relations between the national association and its professional wing.
Premier Soccer League (PSL) chief executive Joe Ndhlela last week requested that referee Petros Mathabela be barred after the Motimele commission probing corruption was critical of him.
The South African Football Association (Safa) thought otherwise and put Mathabela in charge of the Bob Save Super Bowl clash between Spareco Black Leopards and SuperSport United in Thohoyandou.
Safa correctly said referees fall under national associations throughout the world and that the PSL had no authority to bar Mathabela, irrespective of the findings of the commission.
Mathabela drew widespread criticism last season when he disallowed three “goals” by Manning Rangers and one by Bush Bucks in a significant Castle Premiership match.
While this humble member of the Muchineripi clan would be first to state that a man is innocent until proven guilty, it is fair comment to note that four disallowed “goals” is an unusual occurrence. The second dispute between the mother body and its offspring concerns the deal involving Premiership clubs Seven Stars and Cape Town Spurs and four-time European Cup holders Ajax Amsterdam.
Stars and Spurs wisely realised last year that the Cape Town soccer market is saturated with Hellenic and Santos also fighting for support from a rather fickle public.
Rob Moore and John Comitis, owners of Stars and Spurs respectively, opted to unite for the 1999/2000 PSL season with 51% of the shares in Ajax Cape Town bought by Ajax Amsterdam. The unique partnership would see the Dutch club offering financial and logistical support. A new training centre would be built in Cape Town and coaches seconded from Holland.
Ajax Cape Town was launched amid much fanfare in January and the first hint of trouble came a few days later when Safa claimed it knew nothing about the venture.
While Ndhlela appeared satisfied the deal was in the best interests of South African football (to copy a phrase so often used by Safa), the mother body was considerably less happy.
Moore accused leading South African football personalities and Safa executive committee members Irvin Khoza and Kaizer Motaung of trying to derail the deal in a heated media outburst. Khoza counter- attacked by suing Moore for R500E000 following stinging criticism of him in a newspaper article. Last Monday the Ajax deal took a new turn when Safa president Molefi Oliphant held a media conference.
The appearance of Oliphant surprised many journalists who thought he had disappeared off the face of the earth, so seldom does he answer his cellphone or appear in public.
Safa would not back the Ajax deal, Oliphant declared, until it complies with the statutes and regulations of Fifa and CAF (the world and African governing bodies), Safa, and that it is in the best interests of South Africa.
The mother body seemed particularly interested in the confidential clauses of the deal, insisting that their legal representatives view them. For confidential clauses read financial agreements. Conspiracy theorists are having a field day regarding why Safa are so interested in the clauses. Do they suspect something improper or are they curious to discover how much Moore and Comitis stand to gain from the deal?
Moore finds it ironic that at a time when Khoza wants the world to come to South Africa for the 2006 World Cup, he appears to oppose the influx of Dutch cash and expertise.
The net effect of the Safa-Ajax dispute is that time that would be better spent pushing the South African World Cup bid is being diverted to an issue that should have been resolved many months ago.
Perhaps Stars and Spurs erred in not informing Safa timeously about the deal. Perhaps Chiefs and Pirates are annoyed that they have been upstaged by two upstarts from the Cape.
We discovered many matches ago that nothing is impossible in South African football, where there are too many personality clashes and not enough attention to what really matters – the development of talent.
Brinkmanship seems to be woven deep into the fabric of our football and maybe we are witnessing another example of this. Perhaps my beloved mother was right when she said men were boys in long trousers.
ENDS