South Africa soccer is in shambles, with sponsors and supporters deserting the beautiful game in droves. The question is now whether the return of Trevor Phillips as boss of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) can turn around the fortunes of the country’s number one sport.
The absence of a CEO in the PSL has seen the image of soccer hit rock bottom.
A similar lack of leadership in the mother body, the South African Football Association (Safa), has compounded the problems.
These problems and others — such as disciplinary cases that drag on for too long, hastily arranged friendly matches for the national teams and an international calendar not adhered too by either the league or Safa has resulted in fixture delays, with some clubs not having kicked a ball for months after the league started.
The government, which has set up inquiries into rugby and cricket, appears unwilling or unable to step in and sort out soccer.
In the past 12 months the PSL, which runs both the premier and first divisions, has seen First National Bank — longtime backer of the Bob Save Super Bowl — withdraw its sponsorship and MTN end its association with the first division. The bank withdrew after its 2001 cup final was reduced to being a curtain-raiser to a league match.
Safa exacerbates the problems of the league by not adhering to the international calendar and accepting offers to participate in tournaments not sanctioned by world governing body Fifa. A ruling that allows any club with three or more players called up to a national side to postpone league fixtures leads to the current farcical situation where Orlando Pirates played their first game in the PSL this week — although the season officially kicked off in late August.
The premier soccer league’s acting CEO, Leepile Taunyane, said: ”An international friendly not sanctioned by Fifa creates a problem because it then affected our plans in running fixtures.”
Since the league kicked off on August 23 — two weeks late due to the late scrapping of Free State Stars and Ria Stars from the PSL — three weeks of league football have been lost, while the BP Top 8 and Coca-Cola Cup competition have played further havoc with the fixture list.
In an attempt to stamp out fixture congestion, this week the PSL told Safa chief operations officer Albert Mokoena that national coach Shakes Mashaba will have to limit himself to two players per club in the four nations tournament taking place in Tanzania.
Taunyane said: ”The problem is that Safa receives information on friendlies and by the time the league is told the fixtures have already been set.” Another problem cited by the acting CEO was that the national coach was taking too many players from one team — therefore allowing the team to postpone matches. The solution to this, said Taunyane, was to limit the national coach to two players per team. He said Pirates will now have to catch up on their postponed games by playing league games in succession.
But some clubs will be unhappy with the two-player maximum rule. Wits coach Roger de Sa said: ”The call-up of our players to the various national teams affects us a lot as a loss of two players counts more for some clubs than others. With Wits a loss of one player is a big loss as that player is a regular for the team.”
De Sa said the postponement of league games also affects crowd attendance as fans seek the continuity of watching their team week in and week out. It also affects players as they do not train as they usually do. De Sa suggested that the premiership and Safa should stick to the international calendar and the national soccer body should stop accepting ”Mickey Mouse tournaments”.
Supersport United coach Pitso Mosimane said: ”The fixture delays create many problems for the so-called big clubs as they have no match practice and go into a competition weaker.”
Mosimane added that not playing continuously damages the quality of the football — aggravating fans’ disenchantment with the game. He said Bafana Bafana should stick to the programme agreed on and not accept further games.
Mosimane said the teams were also affected because not playing enough league games demotivated players.
Another solution suggested by the Supersport coach is that the Confederation of African Football schedule youth tournaments on the same weekends as the senior national teams play.
Another perennial problem in the PSL is that most clubs besides the Soweto giants, Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, struggle for sponsors. For example, league champions Santos — also holders of the last Super Bowl crown and this year’s Top 8 winners — cannot find a backer. The company tasked by the PSL to find sponsorships for clubs, Megapro, failed dismally in its duty.
Many are looking to Phillips, originally appointed for two years when the PSL started in 1995/96, to turn the league around.
But Boebie Solomons, coach of Santos, said: ”People will need to be identified as understudies to Trevor Phillips.” Solomons suggested that Safa and the league should sit down together and plan both league and national team fixtures.
He cited planning as the problem behind the fixture congestion and said the buying out of clubs from the league did not solve the problem.
The coaches who spoke to the Mail & Guardian were in favour of the appointment of Phillips.
They mentioned his previous tenure as a yardstick as he had brought into the league a number of sponsorship deals, club grants and had been supportive of the players’ union.
Orlando Pirates chairperson Irvin Khoza, Golden Arrows chairperson Mato Madlala and Kaizer Chiefs boss Kaizer Motaung were tasked by the board of governors to headhunt a suitable candidate for the position of PSL CEO. Khoza said: ”The board of governors wanted a person who could restore investor confidence and restore the image of the premier soccer league.”
Phillips had the required qualities, with the bonus of a background of marketing and an understanding that soccer should be run as a business. Khoza did not want to disclose the duties of the new CEO, but said: ”We identified key performance areas as a benchmark for the new CEO, which must be achieved before the end of his tenure.”
Phillips will also have to introduce a management board compromised of six people from either the board of governors or from outside this body. Khoza said Phillips has been given full responsibility and authority over operational matters.
Among the Englishman’s first tasks will be to appoint a financial director, a public relations officer or marketing person and a chief operations officer to take over when he leaves.
The board of governors has given its full backing to Phillips, who will take up his position on November 11 when he returns from England after finalising his other interests and getting a work permit.
The premiership’s problems have been a long time in coming and were first blamed on there being too many clubs in the league. But when Ria Stars and Free State Stars were recently bought out for R8-million each the problems persisted.
The disciplinary case of Amazulu versus Hellenic over the registration of a player — which was carried over from last season — reappeared again early this season, resulting in all Hellenic’s games being put off until it was resolved.
Phillips will have to wield the big stick if he is going to bring back the fans and the sponsors.