SAFPU suggests football Indaba to address ‘cruelty’ by PSL clubs

SAFPU Secretary-General Nhlanhla Shabalala has made a call for a football Indaba to address what he says is the ‘cruelty’ of players by clubs in the PSL.

The SA Football Players Union – SAFPU held a press conference on Tuesday to address the recent developments at DStv Premiership side Moroka Swallows.

The media briefing comes as Moroka Swallows are alleged to have dismissed 22 players following a disciplinary hearing. The club has been marred with controversy regarding the non-payment of players and staff salaries.

Speaking at the event held at the SAFPU headquarters in Milpark, Shabalala said being a professional footballer in South Africa is painful.

“We must also understand that playing football is very painful in South Africa nowadays, given the treatment that the players are suffering. It’s not only Moroka Swallows, it’s everywhere where it’s happening,” he said.

DOES SOUTH AFRICA NEED AN URGENT FOOTBALL INDABA TO ADDRESS ISSUES?

“I think we need to have a very serious discussion in relation to football. We need to have an Indaba or Lekgotla or whatever it is,” said Shabalala.

“[To] thoroughly thrash these issues and deal with football in how it has to be decisively. There are no sanctions for teams for late payments. Players are not paid [on time], and there are no sanctions.

“This is what we have also raised over the years to say they just do it five or six months without giving the players a right to leave, and nothing happens to them. A player miss training for two days, he is fined 50 percent of his salary,” he said.

NHLANHLA SHABALALA MAKES REVELATIONS ABOUT TS GALAXY

“We would have even engaged with players at TS Galaxy. They fine players ridiculously. A player would be fined R 10 000 for protesting against a referee. For using boots that they say are not specified for that game. I don’t know who gets to decide these things, but players are fined R 15 000 if they are found to have used boots that they think are not the standard for that game.

“We have signed a CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement], very clearly so recognised by the league. We do go to teams to recruit because we have a right.

“I think somewhere somehow there is a strategy to deny them [players] access to this information because their wisdom becomes their resistance in the acts of cruelty that are happening within the football system.”

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