ASSIST TEAMS

MBABANE – Moneni Pirates have called upon the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) and other stakeholders to join hands with directors and support teams that are struggling financially.

The Chairperson of Pirates, Gigi Reid, lamented the high economic costs of running teams and the unbalanced competition with security forces teams. She made these remarks in an interview after the ‘Sea Robbers’ end of season party, which was held at the Matsenjwa homestead located in Moneni, yesterday. Pirates held the party to celebrate their players in all three teams, which are the senior team, the Under-19 and ladies teams. Besides over 200 of their fans who were in attendance, the event was graced by Senior Prince Mshoshi and Manzini South Member of Parliament (MP) Thandi Nxumalo. Other guests included Eswatini Sports and Recreation Council (ESRC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Darius Ndlomo, Club President Osborne Nzima as well as the teams’ legends, among others.

benchmarked

“We cannot be benchmarked against state teams. I have been here now for a year. This is a community team and our supporters are low to middle class. I have seen the struggle of the team to pay Mavuso Sports Centre to play games,” Reid said. In the recent season, teams forked out around E2 000 to use the venue for almost three hours. The chairperson felt that these costs were crippling the teams, coupled with some heavy fines paid by clubs for charges by the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) Disciplinary Committee (DC). “I have seen the struggle of this team to ensure that the players have got food. I have seen the struggle of the team in transporting players,” she said. The top lawyer said the PLE seemed to stand so far from the reality of the struggles that these teams went through.  She urged the PLE to look at helping the teams by subsiding basic needs of the clubs such as renting training grounds for them. “Why don’t they come in and pay for the piece of land next to schools where these teams can train? Why can’t they speak to the schools to allocate those grounds to teams and even come in and subsidise that fee?” she wondered.

She also expressed her frustration with the security forces teams that they had an unfair advantage over the teams. She said these teams did not worry about food, jerseys or transportation, and that they could lure away their players with better offers. “As civilian teams, we have to compete with the teams which have budgets, we have heard our boys speaking about not having food but persevering. I think honestly, with due respect to PLE, they need to revisit the reality on the ground,” Gigi argued. Notably, the PLE has a special committee tasked to tackle the issue of security forces teams, which are alleged to have an unfair economic advantage over other teams. The committee is expected to deliver a report on its findings in the upcoming PLE Annual General Assembly. In the previous season, Pirates’ expenditure totalled to around E820 000.

Meanwhile, the PLE gives all the teams E100 000 as participation fee and it is worth mentioning that Pirates will get E40 000 for finishing on position seven on the MTN Premier League standing. This is according to the 2022/23 MTN Rules and Regulations. Meanwhile, effort to get PLE’s view and comment was unsuccessful as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Makhanya’s phone rung unanswered by the time this report was compiled.

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