New club owners learning the hard way that ‘football can kill you’ financially

Some new club owners in the PSL have reportedly found themselves near bankruptcy, because they have found the costs of running their teams steeper than they anticipated. 

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It is, however, their overzealousness that makes them look for immediate success and to compete toe-to-toe with teams who have experienced administrators running them. 

To have a successful team in the professional ranks takes time and proper investments. Pitso Mosimane is one big example of this. While his biggest success locally was at Mamelodi Sundowns, it all started at SuperSport United.

And that is all because he was given the power to sign his own players at both sides. But the new club owners are going out of their way these days to become the faces of their teams. 

There is hardly any team event that happens without them there. And they also believe their clubs can immediately compete with the likes of Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns both on and off the field. 

This is why a club like AmaZulu now find themselves with egg on their faces as they try to explain their decision to release players who have been influential in the team. 

Usuthu first had to cut ties with Benni McCarthy whose salary was among the highest in the league. McCarthy, as he always does, went public about the team’s poor financial status which he said was the reason they could not carry the same momentum from the previous season. 

He said they could not sign the players he had identified because of a lack of funds. The Durban side has now explained their mass clearout as part of their plan to have a younger team who can bring success for the next three years. 

They claim the average age of the eight players they are bringing in is 25, while those they released are averaged at 30. But at 33, Luvuyo Memela was still their best performer on the field.

All these players they have released were signed when Sandile Zungu bought the club from Patrick Sokhela two years ago. He went in big, signing every big name player available. His talk was also big. He wanted the team to be among the top four every season. He claimed that Usuthu are a big club and should not be also-rans in the league.

This is good for the game but it gets worrying when rumours of financial instability start to seep through. 

Then there is Swallows FC who are reported to have not paid certain players their full salaries since January. Tebogo Langerman even stopped training a long time ago because he was not paid his full salary for months in a row.  

When David Mogashoa took over the team, he also went in hard. And when they won promotion to the top-flight, he started looking for expensive big name players who the club is now unable to pay. 

But then there is Shuawn Mkhize who bought Royal AM from Real Kings and later bought Bloemfontein Celtic’s DStv Premiership status. 

The difference between MaMkhize and Mogashoa and Zungu is that while she makes time to watch the team play and sometimes even train, she has hired experienced people to run the team affairs. 

We have not seen her bombard us with club announcements that a general manager could have done. She has not been in the forefront of signing players but left that job to Sinky Mnisi and Richard Makhoba who have been doing it for a long time now. 

And the results are there for everyone to see. Royal AM were one of the top clubs this past season and they are managing to even keep the wolf with deep pockets named Sundowns away from their players. 

The costs of running a top-flight team are estimated to be around R5 million and the PSL grant of R2 million falls short by over 50%. These new club owners are slowly beginning to learn that football can kill them a real death, financially.