PSL Teams Massacre
By Malose Wa Ga Lamola
The willing buyer-willing seller principle is not good for the auctioning of professional football club status on two grounds. Firstly it nullifies the competitiveness of the league, secondly rebranding erases the heritage and history of the selling club.
It is hard to fathom how a series of football clubs massacre led by business people is being normalised. The gratuitous killings of the clubs in South Africa is scary, it is worse than a horror movie. These predators are not discriminatory though, they'll feast on the old and the new alike. The oldies, Mpumalanga Black Aces and Bidvest Wits were slaughtered, the newly born Maccabi also suffered the same fate. When their bank balances overflow they don't show no mercy. Everyone can fall prey to these loaded predators. But a season after one team has been swallowed up, peace returns in the playing field like nothing has happened. Can we flatten the curve?
Related Story: Bought, Renamed And Relocated
Bloemfontein Celtic is said to be critical but stable in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), there is a knee on Highlands Park' neck. These tempting lucrative deals are poisonous and teams should not take. Teams will die a slow painful death if they dare to taste these poisonous deal, it is lucrative, but poisonous.
The Glad Africa Championship outfit, Free State Stars, was walking through a death valley as Panyaza Lesufi and his Italian consortium were organising hitmen to give 'Ea Lla Koto' a bullet but the Botshabelo based outfit has somehow dodged the death trap. Tim Sukazi is on the hunt for the people who murdered a big brother, Mpumalanga Black Aces, poor Sukazi ended up barking up on the wrong tree. Feeding Celtic the very poison that took brother Aces' life. The North West heat wasn't conducive for Dikwena as they prefer a hydro home. Roger De Sa took Platinum Stars near the two oceans, Indian and Pacific in Old Mutual Park, Cape Town, not knowing these coldblooded reptiles prefer still water to high waves and motion salty water. Now Cape Umoya is blowing North-West of the Mother City.
The blood craving Swallows wasn't done plotting someone's death. The weaker you are, the target you became. Maccabi FC was the weak and easiest target for the old guard Maswaiswai. The death of Maccabbi meant resurrection of Swallows.
Extinction of clubs erase historical moments of the teams permanently but lack of history led to the death of Maccabi. Maccabi FC co-chairman Allan Norman said "It was a lack of history and pedigree of his four year-old club‚ and a consequent difficulty in attracting supporters‚ that was a factor behind their sale to Moroka Swallows."
Where does this buy and rebrand model leaves the club's heartbeat, the twelfth man? What must supporters do with the teams replica jerseys? The membership cards? There is a lot to consider before putting up a for sale tag at the club headquarters. Imagine a Catalan businessman purchasing Real Madrid and relocating it to Barcelona. Manchester United renamed London United. History attached to these teams will forbid any attempt. Fans of these community based outfits perceive their clubs as a symbol of their community, an identity. Something we lack in South Africa.
There is no sin in trying. In England Hull owner, Assem Allam, was denied an attempt to rename Hull City to Hull City Tigers. Should Allan have succeeded in killing Hull City surely supporters of City would have renounced their staunch support for the club.
In a well researched piece on Multi-Club Ownership, Stuart Reid, reveals that the buy and rebrand is not a new thing in football. Energy drink and sporting giant Redbull suffocated Austrian side Austria Salzburg before rebranding it to Red Bull Salzburg and changed the club's home turf to Red Bull Arena.
Reid wrote on Outsideoftheboot.com "With football fans being as passionate as they are, this did not go down well with a majority of Salzburg supporters. Many fans renounced their support for the club, and one fan group even went as far as setting up a new team with the old name."
Though in Wits and perhaps Celtic scenarios we don't see home turfs being heavily involved. Murderers of these PSL clubs have already prepared their new homes before rolling down the coffins.
At this rate football writers must come up with new fancier ways of labelling the number of clubs killed by the greed and desires of business people. There are no short cuts to evolution. A team in the Glad Africa Championship must complete its process to maturity.
Also Read: Loved More In A Foreign Land
With 60% of the club stake already in the hands of Masala Mulaudzi, awaiting the University to sign off the remaining forty percent to complete the deal, Wits is no more. Mulaudzi is waiting to read out the will of the oldest club in South African football. Wits has a rich history that I believed no amount of money can send it six feet underground.
Bidvest has been living on its wits for quite some time now. Known for its reliance on development graduates, selling development products to the big teams, in came Brian Joffe. Wits was perennially living in the shadows of PSL big guns. Joffe turned a side known to settle for a top eight finish into a competitive side that would later challenge for honours. Injecting millions into the team to compete in the transfer market. Joffe' investment yielded results when Wits won the league title for the first time in near a century of the club existence. Then it was time for Joffe to step aside and make way for a new board.
The board opened the flood gates of Bram. The queue to Braamfontein is longer than January student walk ins the University is accustomed to. Vultures are flocking to the Wits headquarters to dig up on the remains of the club. Players suffer from all this because they are not in control of their future. The now infamous jumbo sale will benefit a lot of teams though.
Orlando Pirates cleverly dressed in all black presenting themselves as true mournors of the dead hiding their alterior motives to poach on the players.
@Lamola_Herold
N
The willing buyer-willing seller principle is not good for the auctioning of professional football club status on two grounds. Firstly it nullifies the competitiveness of the league, secondly rebranding erases the heritage and history of the selling club.
It is hard to fathom how a series of football clubs massacre led by business people is being normalised. The gratuitous killings of the clubs in South Africa is scary, it is worse than a horror movie. These predators are not discriminatory though, they'll feast on the old and the new alike. The oldies, Mpumalanga Black Aces and Bidvest Wits were slaughtered, the newly born Maccabi also suffered the same fate. When their bank balances overflow they don't show no mercy. Everyone can fall prey to these loaded predators. But a season after one team has been swallowed up, peace returns in the playing field like nothing has happened. Can we flatten the curve?
Related Story: Bought, Renamed And Relocated
Bloemfontein Celtic is said to be critical but stable in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), there is a knee on Highlands Park' neck. These tempting lucrative deals are poisonous and teams should not take. Teams will die a slow painful death if they dare to taste these poisonous deal, it is lucrative, but poisonous.
The Glad Africa Championship outfit, Free State Stars, was walking through a death valley as Panyaza Lesufi and his Italian consortium were organising hitmen to give 'Ea Lla Koto' a bullet but the Botshabelo based outfit has somehow dodged the death trap. Tim Sukazi is on the hunt for the people who murdered a big brother, Mpumalanga Black Aces, poor Sukazi ended up barking up on the wrong tree. Feeding Celtic the very poison that took brother Aces' life. The North West heat wasn't conducive for Dikwena as they prefer a hydro home. Roger De Sa took Platinum Stars near the two oceans, Indian and Pacific in Old Mutual Park, Cape Town, not knowing these coldblooded reptiles prefer still water to high waves and motion salty water. Now Cape Umoya is blowing North-West of the Mother City.
The blood craving Swallows wasn't done plotting someone's death. The weaker you are, the target you became. Maccabi FC was the weak and easiest target for the old guard Maswaiswai. The death of Maccabbi meant resurrection of Swallows.
Extinction of clubs erase historical moments of the teams permanently but lack of history led to the death of Maccabi. Maccabi FC co-chairman Allan Norman said "It was a lack of history and pedigree of his four year-old club‚ and a consequent difficulty in attracting supporters‚ that was a factor behind their sale to Moroka Swallows."
Where does this buy and rebrand model leaves the club's heartbeat, the twelfth man? What must supporters do with the teams replica jerseys? The membership cards? There is a lot to consider before putting up a for sale tag at the club headquarters. Imagine a Catalan businessman purchasing Real Madrid and relocating it to Barcelona. Manchester United renamed London United. History attached to these teams will forbid any attempt. Fans of these community based outfits perceive their clubs as a symbol of their community, an identity. Something we lack in South Africa.
There is no sin in trying. In England Hull owner, Assem Allam, was denied an attempt to rename Hull City to Hull City Tigers. Should Allan have succeeded in killing Hull City surely supporters of City would have renounced their staunch support for the club.
In a well researched piece on Multi-Club Ownership, Stuart Reid, reveals that the buy and rebrand is not a new thing in football. Energy drink and sporting giant Redbull suffocated Austrian side Austria Salzburg before rebranding it to Red Bull Salzburg and changed the club's home turf to Red Bull Arena.
Reid wrote on Outsideoftheboot.com "With football fans being as passionate as they are, this did not go down well with a majority of Salzburg supporters. Many fans renounced their support for the club, and one fan group even went as far as setting up a new team with the old name."
Though in Wits and perhaps Celtic scenarios we don't see home turfs being heavily involved. Murderers of these PSL clubs have already prepared their new homes before rolling down the coffins.
At this rate football writers must come up with new fancier ways of labelling the number of clubs killed by the greed and desires of business people. There are no short cuts to evolution. A team in the Glad Africa Championship must complete its process to maturity.
Also Read: Loved More In A Foreign Land
With 60% of the club stake already in the hands of Masala Mulaudzi, awaiting the University to sign off the remaining forty percent to complete the deal, Wits is no more. Mulaudzi is waiting to read out the will of the oldest club in South African football. Wits has a rich history that I believed no amount of money can send it six feet underground.
Bidvest has been living on its wits for quite some time now. Known for its reliance on development graduates, selling development products to the big teams, in came Brian Joffe. Wits was perennially living in the shadows of PSL big guns. Joffe turned a side known to settle for a top eight finish into a competitive side that would later challenge for honours. Injecting millions into the team to compete in the transfer market. Joffe' investment yielded results when Wits won the league title for the first time in near a century of the club existence. Then it was time for Joffe to step aside and make way for a new board.
The board opened the flood gates of Bram. The queue to Braamfontein is longer than January student walk ins the University is accustomed to. Vultures are flocking to the Wits headquarters to dig up on the remains of the club. Players suffer from all this because they are not in control of their future. The now infamous jumbo sale will benefit a lot of teams though.
Orlando Pirates cleverly dressed in all black presenting themselves as true mournors of the dead hiding their alterior motives to poach on the players.
@Lamola_Herold
N
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