The past couple of weeks have been detrimental to the health of Swallows lifetime chairperson Panyaza Lesufi.
The Gauteng MEC for education has been taking time off his schedule to follow the Dube Birds’ fight for Premier Soccer League (PSL) status in promotion play-offs that ended on Wednesday.
On the last day of the play-offs on a cold winter’s afternoon at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville, Lesufi did not sit in the VIP suite.
He was in the grandstand, needing to soak up the sun, especially when faced with the chilling prospect of the team again being relegated to the GladAfrica Championship.
The 90 minutes against University of Pretoria (Tuks) were nail-biting, but Swallows survived relegation by the skin of their teeth after they won 1-0.
When the referee blew the final whistle, Lesufi did not need the bomber jacket he was wearing. The victory was enough to warm his heart.
The Beautiful Birds, as Swallows are affectionately known, live to see another season, having retained their status in the top tier of Mzansi football.
Lesufi said coach Kgoloko Thobejane was spot on when he coined the phrase: “Football can kill you a real death.”
Swallows will need a master plan for next year or other clubs are going to kill them, and Lesufi is under no illusion about the enormity of the task that awaits him and club boss David Mogashoa.
It’s a known secret the club is struggling financially. It has been reported extensively that at times players have been paid half their salaries.
The club has been back and forth with the South African Football Players’ Union on the matter and it does not help to paper over the cracks.
This is the biggest of the many challenges the club faces.
Operating a PSL club without a major sponsorship deal is a mammoth, if not impossible task.
Mogashoa should be commended for having kept the wolf from the door in the two years the club has been back in top-flight football.
The league did not help matters when it stopped Swallows from jumping into bed with Telkom.
The telecommunications provider had just ended its sponsorship of the Telkom Knockout and was keen to fly with the Birds, but PSL bosses halted negotiations as pen was about to be put to paper.
It was a major setback for Swallows and they again had to soldier on, cap in hand, asking for funds elsewhere.
“It’s very difficult to run a PSL club without a sponsor. We had concluded a deal with Telkom; we even got the sponsorship letter. We worked and budgeted around that sponsorship deal and we thought it was going to be approved by the powers that be.
“But we were caught up in a fight between two big bulls in broadcasting. We were told that Telkom would be a conflict of interest with ... SuperSport (via MultiChoice).
“We were just a small piece in the battle of the two giants. I am still surprised because when Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs play, the match is shown on TelkomOne.
“Those were the politics and they really affected us as a club,” Lesufi said.
One thing the Swallows bosses cannot avoid is the need for more experience on the field, starting with goalkeeping, the defenders, midfielders and strikers.
As seen against AmaTuks in the first leg and against Cape Town All Stars last week, Swallows are missing a lot of scoring opportunities and if the trend continues they may find themselves in the same precarious position they did at the end of the season.
Lesufi said they have not concluded consultations with the coach and players.
Under coach Dylan Kerr and his technical team they look to be on solid ground, but they will need to think out of the box when it comes to the inexperienced youngsters who make up most of the squad.
“We are going to have high-level discussions and strategic sessions in the coming week. We cannot afford to go through what we faced this season.
“You know when they say a belief can carry you through. It was unbearable and I want to thank the players because they sacrificed everything for the club to survive.
“We just have to work hard on getting a sponsor to sustain the club.”
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