Nine months after the South African Football Association (Safa) decided to form a new company whose responsibility it was to increase the sagging profile of the national soccer team brand and take control of its administration ahead of the 2010 World Cup, the commercial wing is yet to start its work.
It still does not have its own offices and, apparently, Safa is now reneging on a national executive meeting decision to make available to the company the Hyde Park offices that belong to the association. Safa CEO Raymond Hack denies there is a standing decision regarding the use of these offices. He said: ”They are currently being renovated and fixed; who and when and how they will be utilised is the decision of the association.”
The commercial wing was supposed to have started its administrative work this week in its bid to start preparations for a turn-around strategy for Bafana Bafana. Instead it has been locked in personality and power struggles involving the most senior and influential people in soccer in the country.
Already the company has claimed its first casualty in John Comitis — the Premier Soccer League (PSL) representative on the board of directors — who tendered his resignation recently, citing among other reasons a lack of progress and the fact that the company is ”stuck in politics of power”.
”What I discovered after four or five meetings we had was that decisions that were supposed to have been taken by the board pertaining to the appointment of the current national coach, in particular, continued to be made outside this board. We were getting stuck in the semantics, logistics and interpretation of the powers of the board. I am not interested in the politics. I got on to the board hoping to have input in football matters,” said Comitis, the Cape Town Ajax boss.
One board member, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ”What is worrying is that the company was established at the request of Safa and it got the approval of the government. I cannot figure out exactly how the people who want to sabotage the process hope to do this and succeed without allaying the fears of the public, which has grown very sceptical of Safa.”
One of the areas of contention was the position of chair of the board, which the PSL wanted to be given to South African football strongman Irvin Khoza, who also chairs the professional body.
Khoza has been repeatedly accused of trying to freeze the progress of the company since losing out on the board chairpersonship, but has denied the allegations.
Board chair chief Mwelo Nonkonyana said he is trying to curb problems he is faced with and that he has resolved to forge ahead. ”There are booby traps. I feel I am not out of the troubled waters yet,” said Nonkonyana, who is also one of the two vice-presidents of Safa.
To circumvent some of the problems he has experienced over the past few months related to the planning and organising of meetings for the board — duties that should have been coordinated from Hack’s office, but were often not carried out — Nonkonyana has appointed an interim company secretary.
Mansoor Parker will be tasked with running the company. This includes ensuring that meetings are held when arranged.
Another problem Nonkonyana faces is that of having to travel from the Eastern Cape to Johannesburg on a regular basis. Some board members feel that he can only be effective in driving the implementation of the company projects if he spends more time in Johannesburg .
Nonkonyana said he spoke to Safa a long time ago about the possibility of getting accommodation in Johannesburg, but the association never ”came back to me about the suggestion”. However, he said he was not unduly worried because the problem could be solved by the appointment of a CEO.
Some critics within football structures say that, for the wing to surge forward, it should have more independent voices. A push for such voices, argue critics, will result in the neutralisation of familiar debates that have dominated football for many years. ”Independent people will stop the personalisation of the debates. This company is the best platform to depersonalise football,” say football pundits.
Nonkonyana told the Mail & Guardian that, in an endeavour to make the company operational soon, the board will meet on November 20 for a strategic lekgotla to define and map the way forward. In this meeting a lot of documents will be tabled for discussion, from which the board will be able to draw and formulate its policies.