Just when Santa Claus was on his way to grant an early Christmas wish to Kjetil Siem, the CEO of the Premier Soccer League (PSL), he made a U-turn this past weekend.
Siem may not be at the receiving end of the PSL’s R70-million commission payout controversy, but his wish to see a conclusion to the continuous saga and move on — because it ruins both the sponsor’s and the league’s commercial reputation — will not be granted any time soon.
Over the past few weeks the PSL has come under heavy criticism from the public, media, some executive committee members of the league and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel over the purported payment of 10% commission to the league’s sponsorship committee for securing the R1,6-billion SuperSport International broadcasting rights and the R500-million Absa sponsorship deal.
The PSL has repeatedly denied the 10% figure, but defended the payment of an unspecified sum on the basis that club owners had agreed on the principle of paying commissions to individuals who helped to secure sponsorship for the league.
After consulting with auditing firm Deloitte, the league’s board of governors concluded last month that the sponsorship committee should be paid R70-million as a ”token of gratitude” for the work done. The breakdown of this figure was to be discussed at the league’s annual general meeting (AGM) last weekend.
The AGM could not decide on the payments, however, apparently because Butana Komphela, chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, was unhappy that Ajax Cape Town boss John Comitis had raised doubts about the committee’s integrity. This followed reports that the committee had endorsed the payment after being briefed by PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza.
A new date for the discussion of the payment breakdown has not yet been set.
Siem told the Mail & Guardian he saw nothing wrong with the payments. ”Like anywhere else around the world, let those who work very hard on sponsorship deals get what they deserve and continue to secure more sponsorships for the league,” he said.
”When the commission one is supposed to get is a couple of thousand [rand] people will not say anything, but when millions are mentioned it becomes a problem. I know and I’ve been through that before,” said Siem, referring to his former position as CEO of the Norwegian Football League, where his duties included the negotiation of sponsorship deals.
The manner in which the commission saga has been handled does not go down well with Siem, because it has resulted in negative publicity for the league. ”Sponsors such as Absa, SuperSport and Telkom feel that they are personally attacked and this is ruining their reputation as they would not be associated with the league if the league’s officials were corrupt,” he claimed.
It has been argued that the league’s sponsorship committee didn’t do much when negotiating the deals, because the sponsors would have approached the league.
But Siem disagrees. ”Yes, sponsors do approach us, but that was not the case with the two [SuperSport International and Absa]. It is not as easy as it seems when people are negotiating for sponsorships; I was not part of the negotiations with SuperSport and Absa but I know what the committee went through.”
He adds: ”People complain about 10%, but it is normal worldwide. Some sports would pay their committees and consultants 25% for lending them deals. The sooner we get a final solution to this the better, because we have more sponsors to reveal in the next couple of weeks.”
Siem’s plans for the PSL is to see it ranked behind, if not among, the world’s biggest five leagues — England, Germany, France, Spain and Italy — because of the professional way these countries run their administration and their commercial sponsor partners. The televising of the Soweto derby between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs on November 24 — a first for South African club football — marks the beginning of this quest. But for now he does not include the sporting level, because there is still a lot to be done in the PSL.
”If we have the big sponsors that we have at the moment, I cannot see any reason why we should doubt ourselves,” Siem said. ”At the moment we are doing well in terms of administration and commercially, and the only part where we are lacking is sport [on the field].
”There’s a lot that needs to be done in terms of sport. Developing players is not an overnight thing, but improving the standards of our administration and getting more commercial partners we can do overnight,” he said.
He believes bringing more European players to the PSL would raise the league’s standard and make it more competitive.
”Most of the foreign players we have are from Africa and they are not well paid. This has a bad effect on our league because they don’t bring the skills to our country. Our clubs need to dig deep into their pockets and get European players,” said Siem.
”We must use the 2010 focus to lift our administration, commercial and sporting level. An agreement on the commission issue needs to be reached without the PSL brand being ruined.”