Imagine if…

Imagine the Premier Soccer League had a progressive club owner whose single-mindedness stretched beyond running his team with autonomy and cared to make a meaningful contribution to developing South African football before making money out of the game. I reckon if I was a football club owner in the PSL, I would get my accountants in, get my books in order, do my research, prepare a knockout proposal and then make a call to Abu Dhabi, to the owners of Manchester City, inviting them to invest in my club.

The Manchester club has launched an ambitious project where it aims to create a network of football clubs based in the world’s most iconic cities. In the past week it was announced that a Man City led consortium had purchased Australia’s Melbourne Heart Football Club. The deal sees City acquire a controlling 80% stake in the club and National Rugby League outfit Melbourne Storm the remaining 20%. It is a similar agreement to the one City entered into in May 2013 with the New York Yankees to secure ownership of the newly formed New York City Football Club who will join the USA’s Major League Soccer when it expands in 2015.

The Man City CEO said they chose to branch out into those two cities because both have a strong sporting culture and it helps that both clubs are in emerging markets as an important attribute of this project is to be successful both on and off the field. The MLS has developed into one of the best league outside of Europe and is able to attract quality players and football has great potential for growth in the States. So too with the venture into Australia and the Asian market which City hope to infiltrate. 

On the field, NYCFC have already hired one of the best young coaches in America as their manager and begun scouting and recruiting operations and the expectation is that they will have a strong line-up when the 2015 season starts. Having a new and powerful club with the ability to attract players of high calibre will undoubtedly increase the quality and strength of the MLS. Melbourne Heart on the other hand is currently in last place in the A-League standings having won only three of their 18 games this season. Their sale has come with the pledge from City that they will improve youth coaching and teams as well as the senior squad which already has a few coaches in the League predicting they will be genuine contenders next season.

It should be evident then why having Manchester City buying into your club would be an attractive idea for club owners over here? City would bring a wealth of resources both on and off the field, would help to develop our coaches and talent; and the buzz generated by City investing in South Africa would create interest from, among others, the locals who mainly support international football. And again, like with the MLS and A-League, having another strong team that can seriously challenge for title honours will improve the standard of the PSL.

Would City be interested in buying into a South African club? I think so. They have been here twice in the last five years on preseason tours; they have had a chance to experience what we are capable of producing off the pitch and the level our clubs are at on it. This past preseason they lost 2-0 to Supersport United and narrowly beat Amazulu 2-1 and in 2009 they lost 2-0 to Orlando Pirates. We have iconic cities in Joburg and Cape Town both with rich sporting history and culture and if there was anywhere to invest in African football it would be in SA. We have the richest and arguably strongest league and certainly the most watchable and as a product can compete with international leagues.

However, it would take a bold, ambitious owner to even think about making a call and asking to talk to Man City’s representatives. Our club owners aren’t always forward thinking and it seems to me that many like things the way they are. They enjoy having nobody to answer to way too much to give away their power.

Lack Of Ambition Stunting SA Clubs in the Transfer Market.

The mid-season transfer window has come and gone and we can all breathe easy agin after the delirium caused by the rumour mill. Well, in South Africa, the rumour mill isn't as active as the one overseas with most clubs only admitting interest in players only after they've signed on the dotted, except for Kaizer Chiefs who would rather unveil a player's jersey complete with name and number hoping they will sign eventually; but Eric Matoho’s jersey is a story and a laugh for another day. 

Anyways, last month, fans of local football were treated to a tasty little rumour linking former France and Manchester United striker, Louis Saha, with a possible move to either Mamelodi Sundowns or Bidvest Wits. Now I would have thought such news would have been greeted with inordinate amounts of excitement, I for one would love to see Louis Saha play and do well in the PSL, whether it is for the team I support or not. Sadly though, if twitter is anything to go by, much of the local response to Saha possibly signing for a South African team was negative. A few 'lols' and these (:''D) smiley faces and sentiments of "how the mighty have fallen" were the order of the day.

I think South Africans underestimate the professional league over here. It is as competitive as any in Europe where any team could any other on any given day. I mean for the bulk of the first half of the season, Sundowns, one of the richest and most successful clubs in the PSL era were languishing at the very bottom of the log table. I think South Africa and the league over here are very attractive. You need only look at some of the players who have played for South African clubs in the past and presently. For instance UEFA Champions League winner Benni McCarthy signed for PSL champions, Orlando Pirates; former Netherlands and Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld plays for Ajax Cape Town; Luis Boa Morte, an ex Portugal and Arsenal winger had a brief stint with Pirates; and in years past Manchester United legend George Best left the Old Trafford club to join the Jewish Guild, a Johannesburg based club that competed in the old National Football League.

There is a lot of money pumped in the game here, only last year Supersport paid the PSL over a billion rand for the leagues TV rights and Vodacom extended their sponsorship of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs to the tune of R500 million. While our clubs cannot compete with the salaries paid by the upstarts in China and Russia, they do have enough financial muscle to put together offers good enough to lure big name players.

I feel that the only thing stopping PSL clubs from making offers to Rio Ferdinand for instance who is in the last few months of his contract at Man United is ambition. I often point to the example of David Beckham, the LA Galaxy and MLS when I say that local clubs need to have greater ambition in recruiting players. It took a bold offer from the Galaxy to make Beckham, who was at Real Madrid at the time, an offer so good he couldn't resist. And other MLS clubs followed suit and raised their ambitions too, which is why you see heavyweights like Thierry Henry, Rafael Marquez and Robbie Keane playing in the US now. Since Beckham signed with the Galaxy, the MLS has become arguably the most polished league outside of Europe. A recent show of the ambition I am talking about is the signing of Juventus great Alessandro del Piero who said he turned down an offer from Liverpool to sign instead for Sydney FC who compete in Australia's A-League. Ordinarily,  a side like Sydney would have no hope of landing Del Piero especially going up against Liverpool but with enough currency and a heap of ambition, not only was the deal possible but they made it happen.

Can South African clubs match the ambition displayed by LA Galaxy and Sydney FC? I sure hope so. It starts with clubs signing players like McCarthy and others following suit and snapping up players like Saha and other big name players. Hopefully SA’s football clubs can step up their transfer ambitions in the coming windows and who knows, we could be talking about Mark van Bommel joining Ajax Cape Town or Nicolas Anelka or his jersey signing for Kaizer Chiefs.

Could Benni be South Africa's David Beckham?

Not the David Beckham we're talking about.

Mawande Says...

If you are thinking about David Beckham the underwear model, then this article would be complete in just 2 letters. There is no way that I can, or want to, imagine Benni McCarthy in tight, white underwear on a billboard overlooking the M1. But Benni could match David Beckham, the footballer, and his exploits in Major League Soccer in the United States, right here in South Africa’s Premier Soccer League.

The MLS was an obscure league up until 2007 when David Beckham signed for the Los Angeles Galaxy. His popularity on and off the field helped to raise the profile of the league and now it is arguably one of the most popular professional football leagues outside of Europe. One only needs to look at the quality of footballers that the MLS has attracted since Beckham signed for the Galaxy to confirm this. Mexican captain Rafael Marquez signed for the New York Red Bulls from Spanish giants Barcelona as did Arsenal legend Thierry Henry. Other notable players to sign for MLS clubs have been former Germany midfielder Torsten Frings, Scottish Premier League record goal scorer Kris Boyd, former South Korean captain Young Pyo Lee, Freddie Ljungberg and Robbie Keane.

Can you imagine this guy advertsing underwear on a billboard?



 Now Benni is not a popular figure in South Africa. He is somewhat controversial and he divides public opinion. I’ll admit to being skeptical when it was announced that Benni McCarthy had signed for Orlando Pirates at the beginning of the current PSL season. Having watched his last few performances for West Ham in 2010, I felt that he was well past his prime and cashing in on a last pay cheque. From what has transpired this season, it is safe to say my skepticism was misplaced.

Benni has been a good acquisition for the Buccaneers. He scored on debut and has gone on to score a further 7 goals for the Bucs, despite picking up leg injuries that kept him on the sidelines for a while. I have watched Benni play this season and I have been very impressed with him. His interplay with the Pirates midfield and forward players has been stellar. He has been able to find passes that ordinary players aren’t able to and he has been making telling runs that leave defenders unaware. Watching Benni for just a while, you notice that he is a class above the average player in the PSL. I have also enjoyed that he does the basics very well. His ball control and heading abilities are superior to any other striker in the PSL. In all, Benni has added a new level of professionalism into the local game and hopefully other players will learn a lot from watching and playing with him. 

Ambitious: Pirates sign Benni. The start of greater things to come in the PSL?

The signing of Benni was very ambitious of Pirates and hopefully the beginning of a new trend in South African football. The PSL has been riddled with a problem of below average foreign internationals who pretend to be good footballers so that can collect mega bucks and end up bouncing from club to club until they either surface at a club in the National First Division or disappear altogether. It seems that for every single foreign international that is a success in the PSL, there are a handful of players who turn out to be frauds. Benni is the kind of experienced and well traveled professional that the PSL should attract.



Another Class Signing. Boa Morte join the Buccaneers. Will other clubs follow suit? 



The local rumour mill suggests that Benni played a big part in Pirates signing Luis Boa Morte, who has played for Arsenal, Fulham, West Ham and Portugal. Boa Morte is the kind of foreign international the PSL clubs should want to have on their books. He is a quality player with a proven track record of success and a big name player. If he can sign for a South African team, maybe it would raise the consciousness of other SA clubs and they can look to signing big stars as well. In the case of the MLS, it took one big signing to raise the league from obscurity; it took one big signing for others to follow. Hopefully the signings of Benni and Boa Morte will be the catalyst that sees SA clubs become more ambitious with the transfer dealings and aim for the best. I don’t see why Sundowns or Chiefs cannot make a bid attractive enough to lure Didier Drogba, for instance.  

There is a lot of money in the South African game. Supersport recently paid close to R 1.6 billion for the PSL broadcast rights, so there is really nothing stopping PSL clubs from going out and signing some of the more well-known international stars. It can only improve the standard of play on the field and bring fans back into the stadiums and attract more sponsors. If clubs can take it upon themselves to think outside the box and have a bigger vision for themselves they will realize that signing players like Benni can only benefit all of South African football. One day when Rio Ferdinand and Kaka' are playing for Ajax Cape Town or Platinum Stars, we’ll look back and say, it started when Benni signed for Pirates.