PLE OFFERS E300 000 FOR COVID-19 TESTING

MBABANE – Some clubs in the country’s top flight football had given some of their key and new signings contracts running up to six months only – the shocker for these clubs is that the contracts keep the players out of the two major knockouts.

They will be out of the Ingwenyama Cup and EswatiniBank Cup which are scheduled for later this year, around October. Most of the contracts came into effect early December last year and will be valid until June – the MTN Premier League 2020/21 first round will still be playing by then and this will mean that clubs would have paid more for less with these players.

Games have already been stalled two weeks by the festive holidays and when clubs had expected action next weekend, government suspended all sporting activities in compliance to the partial lockdown regulations currently in effect for the next two weeks. 

big challenge

“It’s a big challenge that we’re faced with as clubs because I can tell you now that while we don’t have the six months contracts, we still feel affected as the contracts are running and by the time they elapse, we will have paid more while we got less from the players who were given signing-on fees. I also know that there are clubs already foreseeing a challenge with their short-term contracts, but the minimum with us is two years,” Manzini Wanderers’ PRO Mlungisi Ndzinisa said when he was interviewed on the issue.

He felt that once the contracts elapsed the six months, they would have to renegotiate with the players to extend to finish the season which could have financial implications. He even suggested that given the fact that they had to pay for players’ COVID-19 testing yet they were not getting any revenue due to playing without fans, it would be welcome to bring forward one of the knockouts to help boost teams’ cash flow.

Meanwhile, Moneni Pirates’ PRO Mhlonishwa Motsa said they fortunately did not have the short-term contracts this time around. However, one of the affected elite sides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was nothing they could do as clubs, but adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines set by government. He said they would have to extend the contracts with players as it was clear that the knockouts would come after the league.

contracts

Another club with such contracts to some of its foreign nationals is Mbabane Highlanders. The stars include former Orlando Pirates and South Africa’s Bafana midfielder Thamsanqa Sangweni, Mandisa Gadla and Johnson Mensah, even though the latter is unregistered as yet. Highlanders’ Secretary Simiso ‘Space’ Jele was sought for comment but in vain.

Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati confirmed that the two knockouts, as announced by the country’s football mother body, Eswatini Football Association (EFA), would be played after the league has ended. Under normal circumstances, a football season is eight months which means it would be played from December to September for Eswatini.

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