Few can argue that Safa Western Cape’s pre-season meeting with its ABC Motsepe League club representatives was a fruitful one – despite the fact that some may not have gotten all the answers that they were looking for.
It is for the mere fact it created a platform where transparency could be upheld, but most importantly one where democracy could reign supreme as the club’s representatives were in charge of their own destiny regarding matters in the league.
The meeting – held at the Caledon Hotel and Spa in Caledon on Saturday – was chaired by the provincial deputy president, Chris Tyhawana, with the president, Tankiso Modipa, and the secretary, Nadia Konstabel, also in attendance.
Of the 18 clubs participating in the Motsepe League, it was only Zizwe United who did not attend.
One of the most surprising and unexpected revelations to come out was that the highly anticipated sale of Batalions FC and Ukhanya United, that did not go through as expected – much to the dismay of their respective representatives.
Batalions was going to sell off their Second Division status to FC Cafda, while the Eagle Performance Academy (EPA) was under the impression that they would make their debut in the League with the purchase of Ukhanya. However, this will not be the case.
This decision emanates from point number six on the agenda that dealt with the selling of the status of clubs. This has become a very contentious affair of late.
The powers that be indicated that the decision was taken to nullify the chance of embezzlement and monies being channelled illegally and for reasons that are not football-related.
Therefore, clubs can only sell off their respective statuses after competing for at least two seasons.
The provincial body was rather smart in its approach regarding the league structure – one or two streams whereby the club representatives were allowed to democratically vote on the format. It was a unanimous one in favour of the split into two streams to ease the financial travelling burden on most clubs.
Another hot topic where representatives were all very vocal was that the mother body should clamp down on dodgy officiating as this in many cases determined the fate of clubs – whether in the race for promotion or relegation.
There was an urgent call for intervention as the clubs indicated that they were not aware of who called the shots when match officials were appointed for scheduled matches in the league.
Similarly, there were also calls for the scrapping of the Under 23 rule moving forward as it does not aid the development of young players in the League. It was also felt that at the age of 23 years a player should have been developed already – and that 19-year-old or even younger is an age considered where development takes place.
It was however the registration of players that had everybody’s attention and input. Representatives felt that their hands were tied in this regard and that a great injustice was being done to them.
It was highlighted that the regional body Safa Cape Town does not make use of the MySafa registration platform and that this created a major problem.
Modipa also reminded the representatives that should any of the clubs vie for promotion at national level (playoffs) in the future, and their registrations were not done via the MySafa platform, then clubs will unfortunately not be eligible to field their players.
Therefore, it was once again democratically decided to strive for a unified registration system on the MySafa platform and this would be the only manner for a legitimate registration.
The movement of players will then be able to be tracked accurately and the system will be able to pinpoint which club a player last played for. Whether it is on a local LFA level, or any other structures within Safa – something similar to the Fifa-connect system that makes it virtually impossible for players to slip through the cracks as they currently do.
But this system will most likely be implemented sometime next year. But then again, nobody knows!
Clubs also sang from the same hymn sheet when it came to prize monies not being paid out. The reaction to this, from the provincial body, was that Safa only received R8 million from the sponsor, The Motsepe Foundation, while Safa spends more than double (R22m) that amount and was running at a loss.
This caught most of the representatives off guard as to why Safa would still want to collaborate with the Foundation and sign off on the deals.
Of course, there were issues that were not addressed due to certain protocol restrictions, and therefore it would have been ideal for Safa National (NEC) members to have been present to clear some grey areas and to provide more clarity.
Nevertheless, one cannot argue that that meeting was not fruitful or fun. In fact, there were proposals to have regular webinars to engage further on matters affecting the league. But the most important thing is that decisive action needs to be taken for the best interest of all the clubs – sooner rather than later.
Needless to say, most of the club representatives left the meeting with their fingers crossed and with the hope that these pertinent issues will now be escalated to the South African Football Association (Safa) and receive the necessary attention.
They are seriously hoping that the outcome will better the game in the (amateur) Third Tier of South African football, as well as help with the development. But politicking is another aspect that also comes into play and cannot be overlooked.
Look, clubs were never going to miraculously solve their pressing challenges in one meeting, but the platform created definitely helped open up enagement and Modipa and co was admirably open to suggestions from the their reps. Hence, another Indaba is definitely on the cards.
By the look of things, most of the club representatives left the meeting in a rather upbeat mood. Whether it was due to their full bellies thanks to the chicken and beef burgers, or a genuine feeling of satisfaction and confidence that things will improve, only time will tell.
