DURBAN – AmaZulu FC have confirmed they would be cutting salaries of players and staff to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 enforced break that has seen all football action suspended.
Allegations emerged on Monday, but there was no confirmation from the Durban club. Yesterday Usuthu general manager, Lunga Sokhela told Independent Media that he was on his way to a meeting to discuss and finalise how the process would unfold.
“This is going to affect everybody - not just the players. We have to communicate with the guys and tell them where we are. Obviously, the idea is to try and minimise as much as possible the impact of this virus. The harsh reality is that we have been affected. We can’t run away from this unpleasant situation,” Sokhela said.
PSL action has been put on hold indefinitely.
“We are trying to negotiate the best way we can in terms of payments. We will look at all the possible avenues,” he said.
ANNOUNCEMENT 🗣
A message from Neil Boshoff 💬
For those who CAN afford it, please make a contribution to the SPAR 🌲 donation initiative, and help those during this time of need 🛍 #Usuthu_Pride pic.twitter.com/s042CPkyLW
— AmaZulu FC (@AmaZuluFootball) April 22, 2020
The PSL hasn’t indicated if they will cut the club grants in the next few months, but AmaZulu have lamented the fact that they were in a tight financial situation, even before the the Covid-19 outbreak.
“The league and sponsors are our biggest income generators, they haven’t come to us and said, we going to drop this and that. But you know, most clubs don’t have sponsors, they rely a lot on shareholders and their contributions to the club as well. If it happens that those get affected - as is the case here - whereby productivity and state of their companies are not in a healthy state, they will be affected. As you know, even our sugar industry was struggling and now you go and throw Corona in the mix, you are just rubbing salt to the wound,” Sokhela said.
One of the shareholders in club is Patrick Sokhela, a well-known businessman with interests in the sugar industry. Supermarket chain Spar have been major financial contributors to Usuthu.
PSL clubs get R1.5million every month from the league.
“In terms of whatever decision we take, it will all depend on how the economy recovers - if we will go back to normal or not. The good thing is that the president has allowed other businesses to work. That is going to help.”
Already, the players’ income had taken a significant knock in the absence of match bonuses.