Dr Irvin Khoza. Pic: BackpagePix
Our football really lags behind when it comes to credible and competent administrators. It is so bad that I’d fearlessly say 70% of them are incompetent and bring the league into disrepute so many times with their blunders. One hardly flinches when they err, it happens so often.
Most of them are doing the job for the fame that naturally comes with working for a professional sports team, and that is why the game hasn’t grown as much as it should have considering the resources we have. I mean, just recently we heard that a player was fired through a WhatsApp text message and it didn’t even make headlines.
I remember how amused the person who was told me of this was, and he must have been disappointed at my reaction which was rather indifferent. I have heard so many of such incidences that they now don’t really amuse nor excite me enough to see it as a ‘breaking story’.
Some may argue that it is the 21st century and technology had improved so much that our communication doesn’t need to be physical at all, but you’d expect better than this from a professional team. What about calling the player into the office and explaining to them why you have to let them go? Or are they scared of talking to the players because they use them to get fame?
Imagine you wake up and prepare to go to work when your phone alerts you to a new message. You pick it up and go through the text and find that it is from your employer and he is telling you to never come to work again. But that is something unusually usual in our football.
It is this kind of administrator that gives Khoza sleepless nights? Are they the right people to take the game forward when he and his peers pass it forward? I don’t think so. And Khoza is also very likely to agree with me.
I say this because he has committed to help groom at least 20 young administrators over the next four years in the hope that among them will emerge the future leaders who will take the PSL in the right direction.
“I believe this is the stage where we need to prepare for the next generation. Debriefing of the next generation needs to feature prominently in the next four-year term,” Khoza said after he was re-elected as PSL chairman.
“Many of our members are still not clear about the business that we are in. They do not know for sure our value propositions and funding models. It is of utmost importance that the next generation have a full grasp of the business we are in,” he added.
For him to say this indicates how frustrating it must be for him when he looks behind him and doesn’t see anyone capable of taking over. I have also had a discussion with a friend about the issue of who could take over from Khoza in running the PSL should he retire. We came up with some potentials, but we couldn’t find anyone we could say was wholly suitable.
It is about time these administrators and club owners realised that theirs is not just a job but they also have a responsibility to ensure that our football grows and reaches all it potential.
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