While there should have been ululations and celebrations that VAR (video assistant referee) is finally coming to local football, there were instead verbal punch-ups and tackles from behind between a Safa delegation and members of parliament’s portfolio committee on sport, arts and culture this past week.
This happened after Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza requested the chairperson of the committee, Joseph McGluwa, to allow for the league to leave the meeting since they were not armed with enough information regarding developments around the introduction of VAR in Mzansi.
Simply put, the league’s position was that they have not been engaged and that they did not want to shoot in the dark when answering questions from the portfolio committee members.
If this did not embarrass -Safa, nothing ever will. The PSL will be the consumers of VAR, but the chairman says they are in the dark about it.
Said Khoza: “Where we are as the league it is difficult to make a contribution in this meeting… there are one or two outstanding issues and information that we have not received yet.
“We want to make sure that when we respond to questions in this parliament there is clarity.”
Khoza said the PSL supports the implementation of VAR but has more questions than answers on how it’ll be rolled out.
“We have chronological processes we have followed in making sure VAR becomes a reality. But more importantly, what makes us uncomfortable is that our funding model is sensitive.
“Right now we are funded by broadcast rights, which are now owned by a new company [Canal+, which owns MultiChoice] and we still need to understand how they operate. Whether the funding is going to be there or not going into the future, we are not sure,” added Khoza.
“I thought it was important to engage on these matters with our mother association and the minister for clarity…
“We have a lot of questions to ask, which are not for this meeting but they are for the joint liaison committee meeting with Safa, where we have the authority to engage on matters of common interests.”
Upon hearing this, the unimpressed portfolio committee members then tore into the Safa delegation like an enraged pitbull. Khoza and his team were excused and the wrestling spectacle continued for a good 10 hours throughout the day.
In the ensuing fiasco, the portfolio committee members joined forces with Safa klipgooiers; the pint-sized Kimberely brawler Gladwyn White, the relentless Monde Montshiwa, honey badger Mosimane-gape Mathe, Lebogang Riet and the retired no-nonsense holding midfielder Bhudda Mathathe.
Though parliament invited all Safa NEC members, the rebels had been barred, courtesy of a bogus, eleventh hour Safa emergency meeting – but they scaled the virtual fence to join the Zoom meeting.
The other faction, loyal to Safa president Danny Jordaan, also had a formidable line-up. Overzealous cop Tankiso Modiba was in his element, and led the charge. Zulu warrior Kwenzakwakhe Ngwenya was just himself, intimidating and scary, while CFO Gronie Hluyo defended the association like a war veteran with the lanky vice-president Linda Zwane ‘misleading’ from the front. Poor CEO Lydia Monyepao got as sick as a puppy and took a rain check.
What is glaring is the tension between the league and Safa – it has been as obvious as the nose on your face. The PSL, a special member of Safa is no longer attending Safa NEC sittings because it feels that its presence is no longer meaningful.
That, and this week’s shenanigans in the meeting has rather put a spanner in the VAR works. Safa will have to sit down with the PSL and talk about the way forward.
The money is seemingly there, after National Treasury came to the party with a R20-millioninjection. But it just seems Safa just cannot get its house in order.
The war is seemingly far from over, and that, too, might just need a VAR at some point.
