OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 5.30pm.
THE government says it has no intention of running soccer but has an obligation to see that the game is properly administered, Graham Abrahams, the spokesman for the Sports Minister said on Monday.
After a season of ongoing on- and off-field fiascos, Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour on Friday issued soccer bosses with an ultimatum to clean up their act by the end of January or government would do it for them. ”It is not our intentions to denigrate soccer or to put it in a bad light but what is happening now forces the minister to call for the people running soccer to get their act together,” Abrahams told the SA Press Association.
But immediately a new row broke out over the deadline for the submission of this report, with Abrahams suggesting it would be handled in within a week. However, SA Football Association chief executive Raymond Hack says this is not true and they have themselves handed the Premier Soccer League (PSL) an ultimatum to sort out its house within seven days.
”We had a meeting last Thursday prior to meeting the minister where a resolution was passed that we would instruct one of our members, who is a special member, to regularise itself in terms of the constitution within seven days. They were handed a letter this (Monday) morning,” Hack said.
”Hopefully, we will hand our report to the minister before January 31.”
Local soccer is in the throws of a series of scandals, including the on-again, off-again Rothmans Cup legal wranglings, the public spats between senior officials and club owners and even the kidnapping of a PSL coach the night before a game.