Times Of Swaziland: TEAMS HANKERING FOR E100 000 PARTICIPATION FEES

TEAMS HANKERING FOR E100 000 PARTICIPATION FEES
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BY SABELO NDZINISA on 04/12/2020 01:15:00


MBABANE – It could be thrown into disarray.
The much-awaited resumption of the 2020/2021 MTN Premier League season is facing
the danger of being heavily compromised, if information gathered yesterday is
anything to go by.
The Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) announced a few days ago that the league
games would be resuming next weekend (12 December 2020) and released the
official fixtures.
While the decision for the resumption of the games has been met with a stamp of
approval by most elite clubs, it has emerged that the non-release of the E100
000 participation fees is now becoming a sticky subject and a matter of great
concern.
concerns
Apparently, some of the clubs have already voiced their concerns with the PLE
office on the non-release of the money in question.
“The teams have indicated to the PLE office that they want to use the money
for registration purposes and other issues before the games start. Indications
are that the money will be released sometime next week and this has not gone
down well with most of the clubs. The tricky part here is that the PLE is not
obligated to release the money now because such is not stated in the rules of
the league. So, the money can still be released after the games have started and
this is causing uneasiness among the clubs,” our highly-placed sources at the
PLE confided.
predicament
Adding more to the predicament are reports that only two elite clubs, from the
security forces, have so far registered for the new season while the rest are
said to be waiting for the participating fees to start the process.
“The challenge is that the PLE office is not specific when the money will be
released because most of the clubs are relying on it to register players. Some
teams are actually threatening not to honour the games next week unless they get
the participation fees,” the source added.
One of the teams’ officials, who preferred anonymity, conceded that
registering for the new season was a challenge for them at the moment.
“The financial muscle of the teams is not the same because some of us rely
heavily on the participation fees to get our season going including
registration. So, obviously the delay in releasing the money is a concern for a
lot of us and if the money is not availed, it would be difficult to honour the
opening games next week,” the official pointed out.
PLE Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati said teams that had grievances
should feel free to approach his office for assistance.
accordingly
“Teams can only get answers on whatever concerns they have from the PLE. The
issue of participation fees is being handled internally and teams will be
advised accordingly what will happen but they know the channels to follow,”
Vilakati said.
Asked on the issue of individual awards for last season’s league, Vilakati
said that was still being handled by their accounts department.
“The process of paying out the individual awards is being done electronically
and the office is busy with that now. As soon as the payments are done, we will
then reveal the names of the award winners,” the PLE COO said.