OPINION: Swallows’ woes reflect a larger financial problem in SA football

The financial fragility of Premier Soccer League clubs was again laid bare this week as Moroka Swallows announced that they could not honour their remaining fixtures of 2023 because of a dispute with their players over unpaid wages.

Swallows say they are hopeful for a quick resolution and Birds chairman David Mogashoa told kickoff.com that the dispute was over the fact that the players wanted their December salaries paid early.

Yet this is no one-off incident, with rumours of unpaid salaries circling Swallows for over two years. In March 2022 Swallows players refused to train, with South African Football Players Union general-secretary Calvin Motloung at the time saying there had been problems with salaries at the Birds since November 2021.

Back to this season, after Swallows’ 2-1 loss at home to SuperSport United on December 15, Birds head coach Steve Komphela admitted his players had not trained for ten days, and the situation clearly escalated to the extent that Swallows’ game against Sundowns was called off just hours before kick off on Wednesday at Loftus Versveld.

Mamelodi Sundowns still turned up to honour the fixture, and the likely scenario is that the PSL will throw the book at Swallows, at the very least awarding victories for Sundowns and Golden Arrows in the two games currently affected.

Yet none of this will address the underlying issue, that many clubs in South Africa are struggling to make ends meet. Marumo Gallants, TS Galaxy, Royal AM and Chippa United have all been the subject of rumours of unpaid wages in recent times.

Clubs need to take responsibility

The R2 million or so that each DStv Premiership side receives from the PSL as a monthly grant is clearly not enough, while clubs themselves surely have to take some of the blame for not being run responsibly.

Swallows, for example, have brought in players this season who cannot have come cheap, like Andile Jali and Gabadinho Mhango, perhaps not the wisest move for a side already struggling to balance the books.

Even with Komphela, it must have taken a hefty pay-packet to lure their head coach from Sundowns.

In this unstable climate, many PSL clubs are also rumoured to be up for sale, but right now, who will want to buy into this mess?