Premier Soccer League (PSL) CEO Trevor Phillips has grown tired of comforting and reassuring beaten, bruised and bewildered visitors to the PSL headquarters on the fringe of Harrow Road’s notorious ”Muggers’ Corner” — and finally persuaded the league to move from Doornfontein to a more circumspect area of Johannesburg.
”The shift to a modern, nicely positioned building we have bought in Parktown could take place in January when there is a lull in PSL fixtures because of the African Nations Cup tournament in Egypt,” said Phillips on Wednesday.
”And,” added the PSL CEO, ”all I can say is, thank goodness. The PSL offices often resembled a casualty ward, with shaken visitors relating their traumatic experiences of having their car windows broken, cellphones and documents stolen and a constant convoy of hoodlums brazenly manhandling them on an ongoing basis.”
Phillips said navigating the intersection under the Harrow Road fly-over, in particular, was a feat of heroic proportions and needed both skill and good luck to emerge unscathed — ”particularly if you were a visitor to the area”.
”Let’s be frank,” added the PSL CEO, ”the present offices are hardly situated at a venue suited to an organisation of our stature with a turnover of R180-million.”
Boosted by a R6-million profit for the past year, the PSL has splashed out a R4-million deposit for its new premises.
That is the good news Phillips will convey to delegates at the PSL annual general meeting on Saturday.
The bad news is that it might not be easy finding a tenant or buyer brave enough to venture into ”mugger’s paradise”. — Sapa