SAZI HADEBE | Sadly our leagues are only professional in theory

Is our professional football professional? Well, I have endless stories to tell, not just old but very new, which will suggest that calling ours “a professional league” is not just fantasy but a fallacy of greatest proportions. 

I’ve been writing on SA’s so-called professional football for well over 20 years and I can tell you there’s little that is professional about our football, whether you’re talking about club management or the league’s administration. 

Things happen in our football, and they sometimes seem professional but they’re not. Look at the Premier Soccer League (PSL) where a club boss, Mato Madlala of Lamontville Golden Arrows, has been acting as the league’s CEO for more than six years, and you tell me that’s professional or good corporate governance?

Even the chair of the PSL, Irvin Khoza, also chair of Orlando Pirates, has never looked good. But we shy away from talking and confronting this reality in the hope that somehow things will be done professionally.

For instance, our second-tier professional league started the season last week with a new sponsor — a new sponsor who has not only failed to show us the new trophy that is being played for but more importantly, how much the clubs will be rewarded at the end of the campaign. And you call that professional? It’s a circus and nobody is making a noise about this among the club owners because they fear being victimised.

This is probably not the end because, as they say, the fish rots from the head.

The PSL’s poor administration breeds what we see at club level, with a number of club bosses making a fool of their coaches on a daily basis.

The latest embarrassment was on Tuesday when Durban-based Royal AM had their 21-year-old club chair, Andile Mpisane, among the players on the bench for the DStv Premiership match against Richards Bay FC. This made the club’s three coaches — Khabo Zondo, Dan Malesela and Abram Nteo — look like zombies who don’t know what they’re doing.

Last night the management of the club tried to force me to change my line-up, to have multiple changes on everything. So they tried to change the line-up and I was told there would be consequences if I didn’t want this to happen.

—  Romain Folz, former Marumo Gallants coach

Zondo admitted after the match that Mpisane, who was an unused substitute, “is a work in progress”. A work in progress is an understatement. The truth is that this guy doesn’t only look out of shape but he’s unfit by his coaches’ admission. The danger of putting Mpisane on the field to compete against the real professional players is too ghastly to contemplate. Can you imagine who’ll shoulder the blame if a major medical situation were to happen to Mpisane? The three musketeers on the bench of course.

The question is, are they the ones who picked him in the first place? No.

Let’s move on to more chaos at another professional club in the PSL. Marumo Gallants, a new PSL club like Royal AM, didn’t have their 31-year-old Moroccan-born coach Romain Folz on the bench when they played to a 1-1 draw against Swallows FC on Sunday. Folz, who is reported to have resigned, was not on the bench because he was sick or suspended. He was apparently irked by people in the club’s management who tried to influence his decisions on picking the starting XI.

As the youngest PSL club coach, Folz is one of the few coaches in the PSL who have the balls to stand up to this type of nonsense. Many just stomach it and let things pass in fear of losing their jobs.

“Last night the management of the club tried to force me to change my line-up, to have multiple changes on everything,” Folz was quoted by Soccer Laduma. “So they tried to change the line-up and I was told there would be consequences if I didn’t want this to happen.”

Since this revelation Gallants’ management have tried their best to dismiss Folz’s comments on their interference and have promised to “soon” reveal the real reasons he has left the club. I bet my last cent, nothing will come of it but a new coach willing to dance to the bosses’ tunes will soon be appointed.

If you thought that sort of balderdash only happens at smaller PSL clubs like Royal and Gallants, you’d be kidding yourself.

Let’s take what has been happening at Kaizer Chiefs of late, for instance. Two days before Chiefs played Stellenbosch FC in the MTN8 quarterfinal in Cape Town coach Arthur Zwane was asked why he wasn’t playing veteran club goalkeeper and captain Itumeleng Khune. Zwane said Khune was in a programme, meaning he was not yet ready to play this season. “Is he physically and mentally ready, psychologically ready to go out there and give his best? Yes, Itu (Khune) has been doing well at training, but he’s in a programme and we’re still pushing him to be ready to play the highest level.” Three days after Zwane has uttered these words Khune appeared in his starting line-up against Stellenbosch, and has kept the No. 1 jersey based on the two penalties he saved to help Amakhosi proceed to the semifinals of the MTN8.

But the question remains, was it Zwane’s decision to play Khune whom he had said “was in a programme”? Your guess is as good as mine.

There are many other instances that make you wonder whether coaches at many PSL clubs are entirely in charge of their teams. The signing of players for example — this pertains to every club in the PSL, where you hear of club bosses making their choices.

These are the same club bosses who are quick to dismiss the coaches whenever things go awry.

So, when you talk about a professional football league in SA, I can tell you we’re yet to have one. What we have for now is a league which is only professional in theory and not in practice.

I would agree with anyone who suggests we might as well call ours a Fantasy Premier League, where anything is possible any day.