I DO not know if there’s a story behind the story regarding the botched sale of struggling Free State Stars. What I do know is that not only has Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s image been badly tainted, Stars owner Mike Mokoena has also been left vulnerable.
You see, everyone is now well aware of the fact that the Bethlehem-based outfit is struggling for cash and if they were to declare bankruptcy during the course of the 2016/17 season, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
In case you have just crawled out of a hole and you have no clue what I am rambling on about, let me bring you up to speed.
Ea Lla Koto had in principle waved goodbye to the Premier Soccer League by agreeing to sell the club to a faceless consortium led by Lesufi last month.
The reason behind the mooted takeover, the MEC had revealed on Metro FM and to hundreds gathered at a community hall in Soweto prior to the deal going south, was to bring back Moroka Swallows. The Dube Birds were relegated from the top flight two seasons ago and then again from the National First Division to the ABC Motsepe League in May.
To cut a long story short, this potential sale officially collapsed a little over a week ago and the reasons - other than the fee agreed on not being deposited into the relevant bank account - were not given.
Lesufi has been playing hide and seek with the media since, but what a lot of people forget is that Stars chairman Mokoena now has to rethink his strategy or risk relegation. Bankruptcy is the worst case scenario.
What now? The club still has no main sponsor after Bonitas pulled the plug, leaving Mokoena, by his own admission, with no choice but to pull a rabbit out of a hat and pump in around R12-million “to keep the club afloat”. He is now determined to go knocking on doors asking for serious financial backers in the coming months, but here is some food for thought: How does the Stars owner expect to convince sponsors to help him sustain his team when he has told all and sundry that he was ready to throw in the towel?
Everyone is downsizing these days. Turns out this actually is a real thing, which means Mokoena has an enormous task on his hands to try and persuade those with deep pockets to invest in his brand.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but in trying to “save” the club and its employees by agreeing to sell, the bungled transaction has left him in a bit of a fix.
He will have to get clever with that R1.5-million grant and the R4-million clubs receive from the PSL at the start of every season. The grant will apparently increase in a year or two, but the challenge for Stars is to retain their status for them to benefit.
Simply put, Mokoena has to rebrand the franchise because as it stands, it is clearly not attractive enough despite the fact that he would have scored at least R50-million if Lesufi’s consortium met the requirements set by the league for the sale to go through.
As vulnerable as he is now, it can be done. - The Star
Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter@superjourno