50+1 rule

Recently, there has been a growing trend among South African first division teams whereby club owners essentially buy their way to the pinnacle of top-flight football.

In the last 5 years there has been a lot of changing of hands in ownership to a point where it has become ridiculous. Lifelong fans of top footballing brands such as Bloemfontein Celtic and Bidvest Wits have one day woken up to find that their teams are not existent any more.

Writing this article, I’m not against the sale of football clubs but the relocation and renaming of football clubs. Obviously the costs of managing a team can be overbearing, but Football clubs are a brand, and as such how could a brand ever grow if it’s future as a brand is uncertain? How could a fan bother to go to a football match or buy a team’s shirt if he’s not sure that the club might exist in the following seasons to come?

Fans need to have a say in such matters, hence the 50+1 rule. Already implemented in the German top flight, the 50+1 rule entails that fans must hold a majority of the voting rights within their own club and, therefore, be in charge of what decisions the club makes from one year to the next.

In practice, this means that a single company or wealthy individual cannot buy enough shares to make sure they dictate what the club in question does or does not do.

Automatic relegation for the bottom two clubs

It kind of sucks to see a second division team come so close, yet so far to break into the South African top division. Teams like Royal Eagles would be on their best form, come second due to the smallest of margins, lose the playoffs against a top-flight team, then due to low morale falter and go down the pecking order afterwards.

Seeing the same faces in the league every season gets boring to some extent, so to sum this up, Promotional Play-offs are not only a waste of time but also an injustice to the second placed team in the National First Division (NFD). The playoff system also gives the second last team in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) an unnecessary second chance.

Independent governing bodies of the PSL

Most recently, The PSL and Cape Town City’s boss John Comitis were on a collision course over the Citizens’ newly acquired sponsorship with First National Bank (FNB).

City’s opening game of the season against defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Friday almost did not take place after Safa match officials were told that City’s kit, displaying the FNB logo, was not approved.

In an official statement, PSL cited a conflict of interest since they have Nedbank as sponsors of the national cup competition.

That made no sense as Vodacom are sponsors to both Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, essentially keeping those clubs afloat, which theoretically is in conflict with the sponsor of the top eight competition, MTN.

Nick Said of Thomson Reuters had to say this about the matter, “One of the biggest issues holding back football in the country is the conflicts of interests within the league. Positions of chairmanship and CEO should be independent people with no ties to any club. That is simply good governance.”

One mainstay club in the top-flight per province

It is no secret that South Africa is a footballing nation, but in the last few seasons the hype behind football has dipped.

Prior to the beginning of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 5 new stadiums were built and 5 more were further upgraded to fittingly host a tournament of that caliber. Since then, Ellis Park, the Free State stadium, and Royal Bafokeng, whom were part of the stadiums upgraded for the World Cup, have been for a while, without, a top-flight team to play in those stadiums.

To inspire fan turn ups at stadiums, there should be one mainstay team per province. Currently, Free State, North West, and Northern Cape are without representatives in the league, but when Platinum Stars, Free State Stars, and Bloemfontein Celtic were still in the top-flight, they ranked among top 10 clubs with the most average game attendance.

This rule might seem hasty in my part, but with better planning it might make more sense. To further reiterate how this rule could be implemented, whichever team that chooses to relocate to a province without a representative in the top-flight would get incentives.

Then teams with more than one representatives per province would have to fight for an automatic safety next season by finishing higher than the other representatives in the league. So, to put it into perspective, if Chiefs finishes higher than Sundowns, Pirates, and Supersport United(all teams from Gauteng) they will not be up for relegation next season even if they finished last.