It is the best and the worst of times for club football. Having scored an unprecedented billion-rand-plus for television rights, the game’s top division, the Premier Soccer League (PSL), is finally getting close to its commercial worth — and things couldn’t look better for it.
But it is the worst of times for the minor league sides in the feeder Mvela Golden League, which — if the PSL leadership gets its way — will be left to their own devices. The PSL wants the Mvela league to go on its own or be governed by the amateur body, the South African Football Association (Safa).
The decision to ditch Mvela coincides with the lower league’s demand to get a share of the R150-million bonus paid to the PSL committee that negotiated the TV rights bounty.
A Mvela club official, who chose to remain anonymous ”because of protocol”, told the Mail & Guardian that clubs in that league believed they were being punished because they had objected to the bonus given to the committee members who negotiated the TV rights for the premier league.
Mvela league teams also want their monthly grant to be increased from R50 000 to R200 000 a month and their voting powers increased from two to five. At present Mvela has two votes, while the PSL has 10 votes.
But Andrew Dipela, PSL general manager, said the deliberations over Mvela will be made public next Friday. It seems unlikely that the PSL will climb down.
Sources close to the action have suggested that the combination of negative media about the Mvela league, which affected the PSL image, and the belief that the lower clubs were ungrateful for the help they got from the PSL — even when the lower-tier league was not bringing value to the table — might have been decisive in causing the PSL to want Mvela to go it alone.
The Mvela league kick-off, set for the weekend of August 18 and 19, was postponed indefinitely after one of the teams, PJ Stars, had their relegation confirmed after unsuccessfully asking a court to reverse the club’s guilty verdict for using unregistered players. PJ Stars were docked 15 points, resulting in their demotion.
Farouk Kadodia, of Maritzburg United, said: ”When kick-off was delayed we were told that it was because of the PJ Stars case, but that was not true. Last week at the special general meeting we learnt that the PSL wants the league to run separately or go to Safa. We would be very disappointed if that happened.
The criminal case against Peter Koutrolis, of Mvela league side City Pillars, who was accused with club coach Jacob Sakala and referee Solomon Monamodi of match-fixing, was thrown out of court this month because of lack of evidence.
It is believed that cases like this not only damage the image of the league, but also add to the growing intolerance of the PSL, which will not countenance incidents that harm its commercial image, especially ahead of the 2010 World Cup.
Local football in general, though, is enjoying a boom in potential sponsors ahead of the international football showpiece.
It is possible that the Mvela league — if it does go it alone — might attract sponsors who would otherwise be left out because the PSL might be oversubscribed.
The merits of this argument, however, have been overshadowed by the timing of the tabling of PSL’s suggestion that Mvela go it alone and the mood surrounding the bonus paid to the committee that negotiated the TV deal.
The committee of five PSL members, Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung, Mato Madlala, Peter Mencer and Trevor Phillips, the recently retired league chief executive, shared the R150-million commission for negotiating the television rights with pan- African sports channel SuperSport.
Though clubs do not dispute that the committee was meant to get a 10% commission on any sponsorship deal they struck, a few — notably Jomo Sono (Cosmos boss) and John Comitis (Ajax Cape Town) — have been vocal about their belief that R150-million was excessive. They have not disputed that the 10% commission was recorded in the minutes.
Sources familiar with PSL governance have told the M&G that the fact that in the past the PSL chairperson’s had failed to pay attention to detail and had accepted being shortchanged had come back to haunt the league.
”They probably didn’t anticipate that the committee would bring in the amount of sponsorship that it has,” said the source. ”The problem is that club chairpeople sometimes send administrative staff who are not well versed with business issues to meetings.”
Chiefs owner Kaizer Motaung told the Sowetan this week that the committee that negotiated the now-replaced SABC deal in 2002 had been paid a 10% commission.
The source told the M&G that PSL club officials were being shortsighted in ditching Mvela. ”They seem to forget that when their clubs are relegated they will have to play in that league. They should ensure that they get to play in a well-resourced league.”
Additional reporting by Lucky Sindane