MOGAMAD ALLIE: Buying, selling and reselling of club franchises needs to be reviewed

At the end of the 2022-23 season Black Leopards and Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) were relegated to the regional third-tier ABC Motsepe League after finishing in the bottom two places of the Motsepe Foundation Championship. 

Leopards, who dropped down from the Premier Soccer League (PSL) two seasons ago, had a poor season, managing only four wins in their 30-game campaign, so they can have no complaints about their relegation.

But here’s something to think about. While TTM will join Jomo Cosmos, Santos and Moroka Swallows as former PSL clubs that have suffered a similar fate of dropping down to the regional league, Lidoda Duvha will be back in the second tier as if their relegation was some kind of mirage. 

The Limpopo-based side have continued a regrettable but fashionable trend of simply buying a franchise. The regularity with which franchises are bought and sold in SA football resembles picking a product off the supermarket shelf and duly paying for it at the counter. In the latest case it was Black Leopards buying the franchise of second-tier All Stars and starting afresh their quest to win promotion to the top-flight next season.

Instead of regrouping and mapping out a way to return to the second tier, as would be the rational and generally accepted way of doing things, Leopards, like others before them, have chosen the easy way out. At the same time they have tossed the logic of relegation and promotion system into the bin.   

The ability of club owners to run financially efficient operations, particularly in a tough economic climate, makes the sale of franchises almost inevitable. This is understandable. Where the problem arises is when the identity of the club and its location are sacrificed.      

The sale of franchises shouldn’t be an issue. It  happens all over the world for a variety of reasons, the main one being financial. There’s no problem with that. But when such a sale occurs, the club should retain its name and continue to be based where it has always been. 

The sale and relocation of clubs comes at a time when most PSL outfits are battling to build their brands in their quest to attract the support and sponsorships that will make them viable businesses. Small wonder that few have been able to build a strong bond with fans in their respective cities and towns.

One of the most bizarre sales occurred in 2017 when Thanda Royal Zulu sold their franchise for a reputed R60m to AmaZulu just six weeks after the club’s players and fans were celebrating their return to the PSL after comfortably winning the National First Division with three games to spare. 

To worsen matters, it was the second time AmaZulu, who finished fourth in the NFD that season, bought their way back into the top flight. In 2005, Usuthu bought the franchise of Dynamos and only survived relegation at the end of that season via the promotion/relegation play-offs. 

Two other high-profile sales involving Bloemfontein Celtic and BidVest Wits should also never have been allowed. 

The sale of Celtic to Durban-based Royal AM two years ago was particularly painful for the club’s passionate fans who put the fans from bigger clubs in the shade with their vibrant and colourful support of their beloved Phunya Sele Sele. Those loyal fans, dressed in their green and white hooped shirts and singing their lungs out, gave their team a lift through thick and thin, come rain or shine. 

Not only did the demise of Celtic bring an unnatural end to the life of a club that was formed in 1969, it also deprived one of the country’s biggest cities of a top-flight professional team.

Wits University, a club formed in 1921, was sold in 2021 just before they could celebrate their centenary. The franchise of the 2017 PSL champions was bought by TTM who in turn sold it to Marumo Gallants, a team that was relegated from the PSL at the end of the season. At the stroke of a pen and the exchange of a few pieces of silver, nearly a century of history was discarded.

The buying and selling of franchises in today’s economic climate is part of the global game. You need only to look at clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and many others around the world who have changed ownership and shareholding. 

It’s part of the economic reality where investors with deep pockets and lofty ambitions either buy out clubs or take a sizeable stake. However, contemplating relocation and changing the name would not even be a figment of the imagination.

By all means allow club owners to sell their franchises, particularly if they are facing serious challenges in balancing their books, but then make the sale conditional on the purchasers retaining the club’s name and home base.

The PSL would do well to revisit its rules and tighten the future sale of franchises to ensure the integrity of their brand, particularly at a time when the vultures are lurking to buy up struggling top-flight clubs.