Cape Town - Just two days after Premier Soccer League (PSL) prosecutor Nande Becker jumped ship, he was followed through the exit door of the organisation’s Parktown premises by its head of legal Michael Murphy.
No sooner had the resignation of the two legal eagles been confirmed when news broke that Yusuf Seth, the finance manager and accountant of the National Soccer League, the PSL’s trading name, had also quit.
Yesterday, unconfirmed media reports said there were more resignations to come.
In the absence of any explanation from the PSL, the spate of resignations of high-profile personnel prompts pause to ponder.
There must be something rotten in the state of the PSL to have triggered these sudden departures.
Murphy has been a pillar of strength in the PSL for many years. His legal expertise came in handy when the league was confronted with contentious matters, and these have been increasing by the day of late.
Before joining the PSL in 2016, Murphy was recognised internationally as a specialist South African football advocate. He wrote his name in the annals of SA football when he successfully spearheaded the famous Coetzee Ruling, which states that out-of-contract players are free agents.
Over the years, Murphy has acted for many players and organisations and won many cases against the
PSL and the SA Football Association and the sports-loving fraternity lost a champion the day Murphy joined the organisation.
Becker, meanwhile, also has not said why he quit, but he must have been a very frustrated man by the way the PSL was conducting its affairs.
Just ahead of the new season, he and Murphy must have had sleepless nights as the PSL sold their souls to the filthy rich who wanted in on the Premiership at the drop of a hat.
As clubs changed hands at the speed of light, it showed up all the unethical ways in which SA domestic clubs flout decent standards of best practice.
One cringes at the thought of PSL chairman Irvin Khoza, who summed up the rotten state of affairs by saying then: “They did us a favour. We needed to operate with a league of 16 teams.”
Recently, the PSL held their AGM, and usually it is a time for an organisation to highlight its successes and achievements over the past 12 months.
Yet, and not by any official word, it was instead revealed in a leaked report that the PSL has been losing millions.
The PSL disciplinary committee has had a myriad of challenges to deal with in recent months as well, starting with the Royal AM furore, which, if it was left to Becker and Murphy, would have been dealt with summarily.
The trouble started in that matter in January this year when
Polokwane City defaulted in a match. The matter was only dealt with five months later and sparked an unprecedented chain of events which has ended up in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
While the PSL persists with its grotesque silence on matters of importance, speculation will persist, and the football fraternity will remain in the dark.
And when it directly affects SA’s most popular club Kaizer Chiefs, the PSL are looking for trouble.
The PSL is sitting with another hot potato after entertaining Amakhosi’s request to postpone matches.
The resultant lack of clarity for turning down Chiefs’ request points to disagreement among the executive.
The time is long overdue for the PSL to be transparent and since Khoza has been at the helm, that has never been the case.
After two decades, it is high time for a change because Khoza is no longer adding value.
The football fraternity is sufficiently appalled, and it’s time to re-evaluate.
Khoza’s leadership has gone as flat as last night’s left-over beer.
@Herman_Gibbs
IOL Sport