Kaizer Chiefs founder and chairman Kaizer Motaung has come up with a solution on how the Premier Soccer League (PSL) can put a stop to the constant buying and selling of statuses.
This development comes amid an outcry from staunch football fans, who have expressed their frustrations over the sale of clubs that have made a significant contribution to South Africa’s football heritage.
SuperSport United is the latest club to go extinct after they sold their PSL status to Siwelele FC due to financial constraints.
Other heritage-rich PSL clubs that are now defunct due to this practice include Moroka Swallows, Bloemfontein Celtics, Mpumalanga Black Aces, Ajax Cape Town, and Bidvest Wits, among others.
Change of ownership
Speaking to the media shortly after being conferred with an honorary doctorate in commerce by Wits University on Tuesday, Motaung said clubs like Bidvest Wits would not have sold their PSL statuses had they not had financial challenges.
“Bidvest Wits was an asset to South African football because of the way they conducted themselves and pushed many teams to greater heights because they had a good team and a very good structure,” Motaung said.
“But of course, the problem in our football might be the question of change of ownership. Things like that have become a problem.
“Maybe Wits would not have sold had they not had financial challenges because they probably had problems in terms of the revenue they got, and I don’t think the government would give them money for football because there are other clubs.”
Stringent rules needed
Chincha Guluva, as Motaung is fondly known, added that one of the solutions would be making sure that the PSL makes it hard for people with less football knowledge to buy statuses.
“These are lessons that we need to learn, and maybe as the PSL, we also need to come up with a formula where we make it not easy for people who maybe have won the lottery and got R20-million and then decide to buy a club.
“We probably have to bring in stringent rules that make it difficult for people to come just because they’ve acquired some money somewhere and then decide to buy a club status.”
He continued: “Maybe that is a problem we need to address so that we can be able to stay stable in terms of our league. Unfortunately, we lost a team like Wits, but maybe it was time for them to give somebody a chance.”
“But football must come up with something that will make it very strong and stable so that we don’t have these loopholes where any Tom, Dick, and Harry, once they’ve got a jackpot somewhere, then come and buy a status.”
