‘You don’t just up and leave,’ Safa tells School of Excellence sponsor Transnet

The South African Football Association (Safa) is hoping to find common ground with its wantaway sponsor of its School of Excellence, Transnet.

The country’s major ports company recently informed the association of its decision to cut the financial backing of the school, which it has sponsored since the youth academy’s establishment in the 1990s.

However, Safa has told Transnet that it cannot just “up and leave”. Safa’s interpretation of the sponsorship deal is that Transnet has to help the association find another sponsor should it want to cut ties with the school.

Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe said the body wrote to Transnet to remind it of that clause, and will be meeting the state-owned enterprise soon to discuss a way forward.

“If I wanted to hide behind a legal term, I would say the matter is still sub judice because the relationship between Safa and Transnet is governed by what you call a trust deed,” a bullish Motlanthe said.

“I’ve written to Transnet to say, ‘You don’t just up and leave’, given the deed is very clear.

“We will be meeting Transnet because in terms of the deed, they have an obligation to work with us to get a replacement sponsor.

“It’s not just you wake up and say, ‘I’m divorcing you and I’m leaving’ — you still need to go to court to get a decree of divorce.”

The School of Excellence helped nurture players such as Steven Pienaar, Daine Klate and Keagan Dolly.

However, the state of decline of Safa’s headline academy has been a widely-discussed issue for a number of years.  

Motlanthe said both Safa and Transnet have a duty to ensure emerging players in the school get a fair chance to achieve their dreams.

“We are going to have a round table and one hopes we will have a situation that protects the interest of the kids who are already in the system.

“We will jointly address this issue to ask, ‘where are we going and what does it say to the future of kids who are at the school?’

“It’s not something that is concluded. We are going to meet Transnet and deal with this matter.”