PLAYERS ON JOINING FORCES TEAMS: HIGH SALARIES CAN’T STOP US

MBABANE – Team owners must still expect to lose players as long as they are still unable to offer them jobs.   

This is the impression derived from some players who were sought for comment on the unending debate of players being recruited by uniformed teams which has eventually caused an uproar. The players commented on condition of anonymity in fear of victimisation and they comprised those who are playing for ununiformed and uniformed teams, and/or both. Most of the players said they would join uniformed teams on the basis of a job offer. They said no one could turn down an offer of being a civil servant after all. One of the players, who has played for one of the big teams, said even a E50 000 salary would not stop him from leaving his team and join a security forces team as long as a job was mentioned.

retirement

He said having a job while playing football was necessary because the player was guaranteed an income after retirement, or in case they suffered a career-ending injury. He also recalled an incident where he got injured while playing for a uniformed team, where he said he continued to earn his full salary of which he believed that if it was with the ununiformed teams, his salary would have been halved if not stopped. Another player also felt that the forces teams’ behaviour of recruiting from the other teams only kills competition, which he said it was something that also happened when the big teams recruited from small teams.

implored

The players who have featured for both uniformed and ununiformed teams implored government to give the ununiformed teams grants so as to cushion them as they were struggling financially. He said he had never heard of uniformed teams players’ salaries being delayed, which he said was a norm with the other teams thus forcing them to leave them. The player felt that teams’ grants could also help standardise players’ salaries across the different football levels and teams bosses would just only add on that basic salary if they wanted to retain and protect players from joining uniformed teams. However, one player said there was actually nothing weird on joining the security forces teams as there were agreements made between the teams and at times the players joined the forces teams once their contracts expired.

opinion

Sought for his expert opinion on the matter, former Denver Sundowns Head of Development Officer and now School of Excellence Football Academy founder Penuel Malinga saw government as the only solution to the ongoing debate of players joining uniformed teams. Malinga said government should publish a gazette on basic players’ salaries so the players could be taxed, pay pension and provident fund as well as benefit from workmen’s compensation. Malinga also felt that this gazette would ensure that players were paid according to their contracts, which would eventually see the uniformed teams dropping off as they could no longer have security personnel disguised as players, as government employees were not allowed to have multiple contracts. He, however, felt that professionalising the sport was a mountain to climb for Eswatini Football Association economically, while he was adamant to comment on teams’ grants from government as he believed that government supported national teams.

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