‘BULL’, ‘BIRDS’ OVER E8M BUDGET PER SEASON

MBABANE – The country’s two big teams Mbabane Highlanders and Mbabane Swallows are spending more than local football can offer per season, at least over E8 million combined.

That is the cost of running and owning a big team in the country since COVID-19 struck and eliminated major knockout tournaments like EswatiniBank Cup, Ingwenyama Cup and Eswatini Telecom Charity Cup. Founded in 1948, the red and white capital city giants are one of the most expensively run teams in the land alongside traditional rivals, Highlanders.  Each of these teams have confirmed they anticipate spending slightly over E4m this season alone, when there has only been two tournaments so far. These tournaments are the MTN Premier League and the MoMo Cup, whose prizes are E100 000 for first round league leaders, E1m for the champions and E600 000 for champions, respectively.

In reaction to news that the Simunye Group member teams were on the verge of securing a South African financial sponsor based in Cape Town, Swallows General Manager (GM) Sandile ‘Beyond 2000’ Zwane disclosed that  should they seal the deal it would relieve them of the high cost they had to run the teams. This is when he revealed their expenditure was too high and it would likely hit over E4m by the time the season ended. The red and white capital city giants among other expenses spend close to E10 000 on fuel as their sprinter fills E2 500 per week, about E70 000 on emergency services for its 13 home league games, stadium bookings (about E2 300 at Mavuso Sports Centre), E3 500 per home game, which amounts to E45 000 for all their games. He added that they still had to feed and pay marshals, which also form part of their budgets.

It is an open secret that the capital city giants are one of the teams with a huge wage bill as they have been known to be one of the best paying teams locally. Felix Badenhorst is said to be the highest earning player in the country, with a salary above E17 000. Some of the accumulated costs include signing on fees and camping expenses before games. “We’re happy about the potential sponsorship news and we wish that it becomes a success so it assists local teams. Owning a team is not a viable business locally, it’s like donating your money. It really drains the club owners and we are always grateful for their continued support despite not getting any returns,” Zwane said.

He also lamented fines, which also shoot up the budget. It is noteworthy that the Birds were one of the teams who incurred heavy fines last season and still have the Mbabane derby violence, which is estimated around E240 000. Highlanders forked out about E600 000 paying fines last season. Meanwhile, Highlanders were estimated to be around E3.6m wage bill last season, while this season they anticipate going to about E6m by the end of May, when all costs are included. This is due to the added cost of paying security, stadium bookings, emergency services, fines and the deductions by PLE, EFA and some of the stadium owners like Mavuso Sports Centre. The Mavuso Sports Centre is the most expensive for teams as it takes 20 per cent from the gross collections on top of the E2 300 booking fee.

“We are in it for the love otherwise there’s no profit. When I came, it was far better as a game against Swallows or Wanderers would guarantee you from E80 000 to E120 000 gate collections shares but then COVID-19 happened and we’re now making about E20 000 or less from these big fixtures. The Cape Town potential sponsor needs to get commitment letters from all our members then we’ll sit and talk figures but we’re not settling for less because already we’ve spent millions paying games security, paramedics, clubhouse security, cleaning staff, fuel, international camps, huge fines when we win less and a lot other expenses like medical aid among other things,” said Highlanders and Simunye Chairman Chief Ally Kgomongwe.

He said it was so far looking good with their sponsorship talks and they would continue searching for more as in the end, the other smaller teams with not the same financial power must benefit or risk dying a natural death in a few seasons. This is especially because the PLE has re-introduced its development leagues and next season women football teams will be a requirement for elite teams to qualify for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) tournaments like the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. Kgomongwe said they were already spending about E25 000 or more weekly for preparations and match-day on top of the expensive security and paramedics costs, which they did not have to pay before.
On the other hand, already drowning in financial abyss due to unpaid salaries, Manzini Wanderers Public Relations Officer (PRO) Lucky ‘Majayivane’ Dlamini said the sponsor would be of great benefit to the team as well.

“The team roughly needs about E220 000 per month to run. If this one comes, it will be of great help to the team to even pay the salaries and motivate the players as they need some form of motivation. But, despite that, the team would still welcome any form of help as it is costly to run a team. You will recall that we’ve already shares that fans must grab so not to be left out,” Dlamini said. Also members of Simunye are Moneni Pirates and Tambamkulu Callies.
(Additional information by Chris Dlamini)

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