LIARS AND BUYERS: South African football slides in to chaos... even if Lesufi can find R55m by Friday

FOOTBALL'S MUGABE: Dr Irvin Khoza

WEEKS ago I said the PSL were getting in to awkward territory when they agreed to John Comitis buying Mpumalanga Black Aces while Panyaza Lesufi was publicly expressing his desire to buy a place for Moroka Swallows back in the top flight.

For the third time in a year, I produced FIFA and NSL documents showing that the “buying of promotion” was illegal in modern football, that it had been out-lawed since 2007.

But nobody listened. Comitis was allowed to demolish Aces, taking 14 of their players 1000 miles south to his new-fangled Cape Town City, while swapping coaches with Orlando Pirates.

Turk Muhsin Etrugral was grabbed by Khoza amid surprising levels of optimism from Bucca fans, Eric Tinkler was dispatched to Cape Town where, as far as I can tell, another eight players are still needed to complete a workable squad for the “boys in blue”, who plan to play their games on Friday nights in the Mother City.

All this in a tourist mecca that barely produces enough paying fans for one club, let alone a second one apparently constructed purely to under-mine Ajax Cape Town.

That was bad enough. What has happened with Free State Stars and Moroka Swallows’ powerful ANC MEC for Education Lesufi is sending South African football headlong in to chaos.

Eight days ago, after much huffing and puffing, Lesufi went on Metro FM with Robert Marawa and, though he would not say which club he had bought, the mighty Marawa assured us: “This deal is done.”

With Lesufi proclaiming The Birds were now owned by a “consortium of supporters”, we looked forward to “final authorisation” from the PSL last week with R55m promised to ease the pain of Free State Stars, who would duly buy an NFD franchise and play their way back to the top flight.

It was at that point, Orlando Pirates got involved. An agent was dispatched to Bethlehem even as Lesufi made his brave proclamations. Within 24 hours, Justice Chabalala, wanted by Kaizer Chiefs, Sello Japhta and the talented Ayanda Nkosi had all decamped for the Sea Robbers.

And Bradley Carnell, the former Bundesliga star who helped Stars sign up new French coach Denis Lavagne, suddenly found himself at a “big club” for the first time. We chatted about it, I’ve always rated Carnell... but the whole saga surprised us both.

A week later and, apart from a rabble-rousing meeting with Swallows fans on Sunday, nothing happened. No official announcement from the PSL. No word from Stars to their bemused fans, though they played in a local tournament over the weekend under Lavagne but without the trio who had left for Pirates.

And then Irvin Khoza, chairman of both Pirates and the PSL for over 20 years, called an emergency conference at the PSL to tell us NO DEAL, the money hadn’t been deposited, Lesufi has until Friday to come up with the cash or Free State Stars would be resurrected like a footballing Lazarus.

As a rambling, almost incoherent Khoza told us: "We hope that Ntate Lesufi is listening together with the people of the trust he's involved in.

"I want to appeal to MEC Lesufi that together with whoever he's involved with in the consortium to finalise this ASAP.

"If we we don't have clarity by the end of the week there will be no transaction, change of club or anything like that. There will be nothing for us to consider. Our position as the League, right now, is that we await a full report from the parties."

Khoza, who stands astride our football like a gold-toothed Robert Mugabe, rambled: "I spoke to Mr Lesufi and he apologised. I hope they will conclude it this week. Because we can't wait too long.

"We are dissappointed because they let the cat out of the bag prematurely. As it stands, no application has been made.

"If the intention of this trust is to buy the club and seek a name change, that is a matter to be dealt with when the time comes (Khoza claims the name Moroka Swallows had NEVER been mentioned).

Khoza went on to make similar contradictory, never-ending comments on Metro FM a couple of hours later, waxing lyrical about footballing traditions, and the pain caused to Free State Stars “players, officials and family”.

But of course, he was being economical with the truth. A deal HAD been done, and Khoza himself was part of that deal, as he immediately grabbed as many Stars staff as he could for free.

The only hitch? Lesufi failed to deposit the R55m, money that, for some reason, is linked to an agent called Francesco Ferreri, an Italian South African who has featured before without distinction as an agent involved at Moroka Swallows and named by sources in Zimbabwe during their recent match-fixing scandal.

I’d like to say such chaos is normal in the running of a football league, but it’s not. This goes way beyond Greek and Turkish footballing mayhem and in to the dark reaches of corruption and fraud.

Khoza knew about the Lesufi deal - the proof is in the pudding with Nkosi, Japhta, Chabalala and Carnell - and to say Panyaza’s “brand” will be ruined by non-payment is pure hypocrisy.

Lesufi has only himself to blame for the mess he now finds himself in. But if the money is paid by Friday, the YESMEN culture in our game will rescue his reputation and, as Marawa said over a week ago, Panyaza will return to being a candidate for South African President for his manic bid to rescue Moroka Swallows who, whatever happens, are scheduled to play in the third division ABC Motsepe League next season.

Khoza sits with the spoils of the deal in the Pirates training camp in Potchefstroom. Lesufi is scrabbling around for R55m (Khoza said it was “more than Comitis paid for Aces”) and Free State Stars don’t know if they’re in the PSL, the NFD or the grave yard.

These are the facts. The questions that move us beyond this chaos are these:

Will Pirates return the three Stars and their new assistant coach Carnell to Free State Stars if the deal falls through?

Can Free State Stars continue to function given the club's silence during this sordid affair? Will their tiny band of fans simply give up?

Can Khoza, 68, continue to run the PSL where he has presided for over 20 years given his bizarre outbursts which appeared to amount to threats against ANC MEC Lesufi?

Just a political thought: can Lesufi himself escape unscathed as a prominent politician given his part in all this?

And all this of course, flying in the face of FIFA’s directives. You can’t buy promotion, politicians can’t be involved in football, players cannot be discarded or sent to another club unless they are consulted.

In proper footballing nations, teams are deducted 10 points if they go bankrupt. They are demoted, like Scottish champions Rangers, to the LAST available division.

It’s a mess. A terrible mess. Even if Lesufi gets his money by Friday and Khoza goes silent, we face a PSL season like none other. FOUR new clubs, 10 teams out of 16 who look very different to last season. And barely a transfer fee in sight. Millions paid to change clubs, not a penny spent on academies or development.

Though the PSL won’t confirm it, our national premier division suffered their lowest EVER attendances last season, dipping under 6,000. Will Cape Town City, Moroka FC, Highlands Park and Baroka stop that decline? I seriously doubt it.

We are caught up in something called the Carling Champions Cup which involves the fifth and seventh best teams in the country. Two of our Olympic squad are going to be late for Rio because of it.

And PSL sponsors ABSA? Do they get told what happens to their millions?

One final point: Is SAFA, the umbrella under which all this happens, even aware? Has Danny Jordaan, like Lesufi a prominent ANC politician, shown ANY interest?


Here's what I wrote when AmaZulu football, my favourite team, were trying to buy a place back in the PSL a year ago: http://neal-collins.blogspot.co.za/2015/06/relegated-amazulu-cough-up-r82m-to.html

Everything you need to know about the final round of the ABSA Premiership

Up for grabs: eNews presenter Sandile Nkosi and I with the trophy

After a frantic penultimate ABSA Premier League Saturday, here's the facts:

1 Only Orlando Pirates or Moroka Swallows can now win the title.
2 If the Buccaneers win their final game at Arrows, they retain the title.
3 If the Sea Robbers draw and the Dube Birds win, Swallows snatch it.
4 If Pirates lose, Swallows must still win at Maritzburg United.
5 Siyabonga Nomvethe is FIFTH player to reach 20 PSL goals in a season.
6 Moeneeb Josephs wants Pirates caretaker Augusto Palacios to stay.
7 SuperSport United, despite beating Sundowns, are out of the race.
8 Dutch legend Johan Neeskens is under huge pressure.
9 Kaizer Chiefs produce late winner to end Free State Stars’ challenge.
10 Jomo Cosmos are relegated. Barring a miracle.

Yup, what a day of drama it was. Sponsors ABSA certainly got their money’s worth. And we’ve got another week of nail-biting still to come.
Champions Orlando Pirates, 1-0 down to an early Bloemfontein Celtic goal, looked like they’d thrown it away at the Orlando Stadium. Letladi Madubanya silenced the Ghost, who barely had an attempt on goal to celebrate in a dire first half.
But the Ghost were brought back to life by Thulasizwe Mbuyane’s equaliser after an agonising 73 minutes following a cross from Ndumiso Mabena.
Then along came Siyabonga Sangweni with the header which means the Buccaneers just need to win at Lamontville Golden Arrows in their final match to successfully defend their ABSA crown.
Sangweni’s goal means Bucca Bucca remain two points ahead of Swallows but the Birds have a narrow advantage on goal difference.
If the Birds fail to win at Maritzburg United next week, they’re gone. But if they win and Pirates draw or lose, the title goes to Dube.
Siyabonga Nomvethe, the veteran striker I wrote about in The New Age last week, scored twice for Gordon Igesund's Birds at Dobsonville, which was enough to see off Platninum Stars 2-1. That takes the 34-year-old from KwaMashu to 20 goals this season - only the four others have ever achieved that in nearly two decades of Premier League action in South Africa.
With Pirates 90 minutes away from a historic title defence, caretaker coach Augusto Palacios refused to go overboard. Through his big Peruvian smile, he told kickoff.com: "The last game we have, we need to win that game. Not any other results we will accept. If we draw we are out, it is clear we need to win that game.
"Until we win that came, then we can say we are champions, I can't say anything until we play that game against Arrows, which is a difficult game."
"I'm very happy with the character we put in after we made an early mistake by conceding an early goal.I must credit the players; it was not an easy game. It was very difficult game, Celtic for six games were unbeaten and had a very solid defence, but we knew the goal would come and we continued to put pressure and we got it."
Few expected Palacios to achieve glory after the departure of Julio Leal, but he will be difficult to dislodge now. Pirates chairman Irvin Khosa may be the Iron Duke, but even he would surely struggle to axe a second successive championship winning coach if three points are secured next Saturday.
Those wins for the two oldest top flight clubs in Soweto saw the other four contenders fall away in the title chase. Free State Stars were looking like possibles until Kaizer Chiefs produced a late winner, with caretaker coach Doc Khumalo looking like he's won the World Cup when the whistle went to confirm a come-from-behind 2-1 win. Quite what Brazilian Leal and Ruud Krol must think, who knows?
Perhaps he was cheered up by the news that Chiefs will keep their technical team intact despite the arrival of new coach Stuart Baxter with his dodgy CV.
SuperSport’s 1-0 win over Mamelodi Sundowns wasn’t enough to keep them in the (Gavin) Hunt.
Quite what happens at Sundowns now after their alarming late season slump is hard to say. The great Dutch master Johan Neeskens simply failed to come up with anything when it mattered.
Sibusiso Zuma's 79th-minute goal was enough to decide a League clash which previews the all Tshwane Nedbank Cup Final showdown.
Elsewhere, Santos grabbed a 2-2 draw against AmaZulu to keep survival hopes alive while Ajax crushed Arrows 4-1 in Cape Town. Jomo Cosmos - held 1-1 by Maritzburg - now need to beat Leopards and Santos with a combined goal difference of +5 to avoid the automatic drop spot.
So we go in to the final Saturday in South Africa just like they are in England. If QPR can hold Manchester City or Arrows can deny Pirates, everything changes.

You can follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol or read my Neal and Pray column every Tuesday at www.thenewage.com. I'll be on eTV Sunrise Classic Play at 7.30am on Monday, followed by eNews (DSTV 403) at 8.15am with Collins' Corner.