Millions for PSL clubs as NFD sides remain poor cousins

Christmas came early for Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs.

PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza revealed over the weekend that  the 16 clubs would get an ex-gratia of R1 million each as the league has done very well financially and had some "cash reserves".

It did not end there. They will pocket a further R3 million at the end of the current month as well as a R4 million windfall at the beginning of the season in August.

According to the gap-toothed one, the R3 million maphepha is to assist the clubs with the implementation of the new club licensing handbook.

The R4 million would come in handy in helping the clubs with their pre-season preparations as well as buying new players for next season.

The Iron Duke of South African football said the good financial news was announced and endorsed at the PSL board of Governors (BoG) gathering last week.

The BoG is made up of the 16 PSL club chairpersons and their 16 counterparts from the NFD.

While the PSL clubs will be getting a total of R8 million each between now and August, the NFD campaigners will have to do with a paltry R2.175 million - as they will get a R175 000 in ex-gratia each, R500 000 at the end of May and a further R1.5 million at the beginning of the season, to prepare themselves.

While this was agreed upon and approved by the BoG, my guess is that NFD clubs accepted the decision begrudgingly just as has happened in the past.

A gap of almost R6 million in the windfall is too much. It is typically a matter of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Just for the record, while PSL clubs enjoy a R1.5 million monthly grant, NFD teams survive on a measly R350 000.

But even if the matter had come up for a vote, the NFD clubs would have been trashed as they only hold one vote each  while PSL clubs enjoy a massive four votes each, as per the NSL constitution.

You might be wondering where the NSL (National Soccer league) comes into this. The NSL is the umbrella body consisting of the PSL and the NFD.

The voting has always been skewed against NFD clubs and has been a thorny issue for years.

Another decision that came out of the BoG was that the NFD clubs had withdrawn their move to become an independent league.

Well, no one can blame them. It is obvious that they do not have the capacity to go it alone.

I found it ironic that this happened in a week that former SAFA CEO Raymond Hack told a moving story of how clubs broke away from the then South African National Football Association (SANFA) to form an independent NSL in 1985.

One of the main reasons was the dictatorial tendencies of the late George Thabe.

Talk of history repeating itself!

Maybe, just maybe, the NFD clubs will get their independence the day they decide to become a stand-alone league and break the stranglehold of the PSL.

All they need is a strong financial backer. There might just be somebody or a company out there seeing that mining mogul Patrice Motsepe is pouring millions into the ABC Motsepe League (the third-tier).

It is obvious that they can expect no favours from the PSL who instead of getting a sponsorship and TV coverage for the NFD, rather came up with a new league, the MultiChoice Diski Challenge that gets massive television coverage.