Firstly, let us recognize excellence where it plays itself out. Great leadership and management at the club level are hard to come by in South Africa, especially at the grassroots level. On October 21, 2023, we saw great things at Centurion Blues Football Club.
This club is celebrating 25 years of existence. What a milestone!
The Blues are affiliates of the Football Association Pretoria (FAP), which is, in turn, an affiliate of SAFA Tshwane.
Established in the 1990s, this club followed the correct processes of club management. They registered themselves as NPO. What this does is take away the ownership of the club from an individual and place its lifeline in the hands of properly appointed/elected committee, who serve on the terms dictated by their statutes, and when their term ends, they vacate their position and way for a new crop of leadership. This is how a club should be operated, and here are some of the advantages:
- It requires that the leadership be collective.
- It means that the stakeholders of the club have a say in how the club is run; remember, the most common stakeholders are the parents.
- It leads to the club not being run from the pockets of an individual but rather through a properly and consistently commercialized membership.
- It leads to a solid operational, administrative, and technical entity that is properly governed by elected officials through properly promulgated statutes, policies, and processes, and
- If properly managed, it packages the entity and its operations attractively for corporate partnerships.
This is what we spoke about when we outlined the Leadership and Governance Transformation Pillar during my campaign for the SAFA Presidency. Within this context, I would like to emphasize club licensing, where we said:
Club Licensing
Life blood: Football Clubs right to the lower levels of participation are the life blood of the organisation nationally. Establishing an association Football Club must eventually be a sacramental act. It adds life to the life of our football. Such establishment must be given the status that they deserve and encouraged to keep afloat.
Association Football: Participating in association football cannot never be the same as participating in gambling or social football. Therefore, with club licensing, association Football Clubs will be driven to have the right ingredients of a football club. Some of these ingredients are registration as NPO / NPC, PBO, SAFA Based Licensing, and to meet the minimum club operational requirements like club-player-parent engagement model, transparent governance model, sustainable club funding model.
Public / Private Support: Through Club Licensing, SAFA must enable a solid support system for the licensed clubs from both public and private section. SAFA must be able to maintain information on Good Standing statuses, movement, and history of clubs nationally.
Club Participation: A channel for licensed clubs to participate in the decision making of the association must be created.
The Centurion Blues have long started to prepare for the above eventuality and can be used as a template of how clubs must be constructed and run. That is why we are delighted to have been part of the celebration, as it allows us to share this information. Any club that wants to repackage itself can research this deeper and start thinking seriously about transformation because this is where we are going.
There are a lot of other clubs like Centurion Blues Football Club; some may even be better, especially within the jurisdiction of the Football Association of Pretoria.
As we congratulate Centurion Blues FC for such a momentous milestone, we invite them to open themselves up to the Tshwane football fraternity for others to study their ways to make way for football transformation in Tshwane, which will ultimately spread nationally for the betterment of football in South Africa.
In Tshwane, we have 16 Member LFAs, 15 of which are focused on the township parts of the city, while the Football Association of Pretoria (FAP) is right at the center of the city and services the most affluent communities of the city. Its membership structure is much more advanced and accommodates a proper way of managing football.
For our township-based LFAs, it will be a mammoth task to get to the level where both the FAP and its member clubs are at. But this is a journey that we have to travel as part of the transformative agenda to lift up our football in Tshwane and countrywide.
Most LFAs will bemoan the cost and effort attached to this transformative agenda, while some at the club level may refuse to let go of the ownership of their clubs in favor of term-based club leadership successions, in which case the registration of their clubs as companies becomes an option, as long as the club licensing governance provisions are adhered to. These are the challenges that we will be facing as we embark on this club licensing transformative agenda, but it is sure a challenge we are willing to face and overcome.
During the celebrations, we were graced by the presence of Dr. Ephraim Jomo Sono. Bra J needs no introduction in football scene. He is affectionately known as the prince. But he really is the King, not only in South Africa, but in the whole of Africa. The Programme Director, Mr. Collen Tshabalala made a point for all to know some of the dazzling skills that Pele showed during his prime time were shown to him by Bra J.
In his speech, Bra J shared the insight in his relationship with the Chairperson of the Centurion Blues FC, and the resultant synergies between the two of them many years thereafter. You may watch the speech here.
But one of the things he shared was his concern over the declining participation of the South African players overseas, and they are declining durability. Our players no longer last and almost never make it to prominence overseas. Why is that? This concern was then turned into a challenge to myself as the aspirant leader of football in the near future.
Dr. Jomo Sono, as part of our campaign for SAFA Presidency we have always emphasised on the Continental Glory Pillar to address this very concern. In it we say:
Pillar 5 – Continental Glory
Club Continental Glory: SAFA has for substantial period allowed local clubs to snub or belittle continental competitions, resulting in continental stars being acquired only three times in 30 years. This cannot be allowed to continue. We will set quiet ambitious targets for the winning of the stars and put the support behind the initiatives.
Squad Continental Glory: National Squad’s abilities start from the work we put in at the grass roots levels. We must be deliberate and leave nothing to luck or fluke. Developmental programmes must have this glory in mind and must be applied in all layers of football nationally without fail.
Player International Glory: Europe must be saturated with our players. This cannot happen if we are treating Bafana Bafana and other squads as entertainment instruments. We must rather use them as a platform to parade great talent, and balance fresh talent with experience for best results. We must be deliberate about this in order to promote our players to the world.
We want to also congratulate Mr. Mandla Tshabalala and the rest of the Executives for getting to this point. We listened to the challenges you have listed as you spoke about your operations. You said your club is amongst the most affordable for players to join at R3 000,00 per season, whereas other clubs charge R900,00 per month. This membership fee comes standard with the kit, tracksuits, and the bad, and it is inclusive of all the development work. We call upon the corporate world to look into this and how assistance may be packaged for the Blues. This is a club that follows corporate governance, and not only ensures that their coffers are not bottomless pits but provides for clear auditing for their finances to demonstrate compliance and financial prudence. With their assistance, the corporate world will benefit from value in both the marketing aspects and tax rebates.
Centurion Blues Football Club:
Website: https://cbfc.co.za/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090179427045
Lastly, as you may know, I (Solly Mohlabeng) and Mme Ria Ledwaba have taken SAFA to court. This court is not really brought upon directly because of the elective Congress that took place in June last year. But it is because SAFA refused to refer our dispute for the same to Arbitration. Refusing us to be heard is tantamount to stifling views and opinions, and effectively doing what individuals please against the organizational protocol. So, for the courts, if not to compel SAFA to adhere to its own protocols and allow for the arbitration to take place, then the court must preside over this matter fully. We will unfortunately not discuss the merits of the case here but will keep the public posted as the hearing begins. The case will be heard on the 13th of November 2023 at the Pretoria High Court.
One thing is for sure….. There will be change, and it will be positive.
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