Court ruling: clubs to score

Khoza announced yesterday that the PSL had won a case against Gidani which will see the lottery operator share the money they make through football betting using PSL fixtures.

The league sent letters to Gidani in 2007 where they expressed displeasure at the operator using their fixtures for betting without compensating them. It resulted in a case presented at the South Gauteng High Court which the league won, meaning they will get back payment from 2007.

“The millions which are made every year from betting were mind-boggling when we got the statistics,” Khoza said. “Now that we are sharing the spoils, it is going to be a win-win for us. We are not saying we are going to stop them but we will regulate them so that there is a legal arrangement between us and those betting houses to make sure there is benefit for the league and the teams.”

The league is yet to decide on how the clubs will get this money, whether it will be in the form of increasing their R1.5-million grants – for the 16 teams in the Absa Premiership – or in helping the clubs financially.

“The board of governors need to decide on this because there are lot of challenges,” Khoza said.

“The cost of staging games now is a big challenge. The cost of securing players is big. The cost of also acquiring players, not just in South Africa but in the entire continent, is big.

“The cost of having development structures is big and the tickets don’t go a long way in mitigating some of these costs. Money that’s paid at the gate doesn’t make much of a difference. We are still negotiating on how this money will filter through to clubs.”