Thursday, February 27, 2014

Majoro Saga - Are we expecting too much from players?


World football has had many feuds and controversies when it comes to players transfers, misconducts and deals. That ranges from the Bosman case which led to what is known as the Bosman rule and the recent Neymar transfer from Santos of Brazil to Barcelona. Lehlohonolo Majoro of South Africa has been making the headlines, firstly for his fallout with the Kaizer Chiefs technical team as surplus to requirements and then their managements by what they termed his (mis)conduct.

Major, as he was affectionately known at Amakhosi, hopefully will be the same or a better Major at Orlando Pirates, has been recently been accused of betrayal of trust and misbehaviour by his agent, Tim Sukazi just to paraphrase the whole thing. Many of you are aware of the details, some even well-versed than yours truly. The stories later ran regarding the risk Pirates were taking in trying to field the player. This was based on the fact that Major had his contract cancelled by Kaizer Chiefs on Friday having already signed a pre-contract to join Pirates next season.

The reports feared the Premier Soccer League regulations that state clearly that no player may be registered outside of the transfer windows if he was contracted to another club at the time the last window closed, but the South African Football Players Union released a statement to clarify the saga as these fears were based on uninformed sources. To summarise the SAFPU statement, it said that Majoro was declared a free agent by the PSL Dispute Resolution Chamber. The implications thereof were that, among many other things, he was at liberty to choose his next destination and start work with immediate effect. He was declared a free agent on Saturday, 22 February 2014, meaning the player would be entitled to register outside the window period for any club of his choice. Chiefs opted not to oppose the application for his free agency. The statement mentioned that as long as proper registration procedures were followed, Majoro would be entitled to play football immediately, ‘without any club being at risk to be "DOCKED" points’. 

Coming to his assumed dealings with Sukazi, the story has many prisms. Even those on the same side see different colours and reflexions. There is talk of the two gentlemen’s relationship having reached low levels, but from what the agent says, there may be no relationship at all to talk about. The issue is that Majoro by-passed what was his main man, to join the Sea Robbers. Many believed that Majoro’s contract with Sukazi was expired and hence someone else negotiated his three-year deal on Monday with the Buccaneers. The juicy part is that the negotiator is said to be an unregistered agent and neither is he a practising lawyer in his country of jurisdiction. It is believed by others that Sukazi was still Majoro's agent. The agent has since said he will sue to clear his name and probably for being hard done by the player after they hopped from Supersport United to Ajax Cape Town FC yet the player was dealing with someone else.

The fact of the matter is that this case is a big story because it involved big teams, a big player and hence represented a big business. With all due respect, players have limited capacity to make decisions and Sukazi should know better. It is not that football players are not as professional as they should be because they choose not to be. Major may be of a higher or lower intellect or education than an average footballer but here is the point: Many footballers have limited time and resources to get education as many will sign their first professional contracts before they are done with school. They spend the rest of their playing careers being admired superstars and that is the life they know.


I cried while watching one documentary of one player many thought was the best thing after Pele and Eusebio, one Nii Lamptey of Ghana. For all the glory and talent, he is poorer that a church mouse as he was milked dry by agents who made him hop from one frying pan to fire. He could neither read nor write. A few years back, Lebohang Mokoena was playing for Pirates during the days of Joseph Makhanya, Gift Leremi and Jimmy Khauleza and Benedict Vilakazi. The Cheese Boy opted against writing his matric examinations doing football. At least arriving to that level was an extreme achievement on its own.

Even in higher leagues, few players study beyond elementary levels as one or two go on to get Doctorates but one can count them on one hand, as you will remember the great Socrates of Brazil who was a medical doctor and a philosopher. David Wetherall and Barry Horne had a degree in Chemistry, Steve Palmer in Software Engineering. (Other include Steve Heighway (economics), Slaven Bilic (law), Shaka Hislop (mechanical engineering), Iain Dowie (Masters in engineering), Steve Coppell (economics) and Richard Hinds (law, Open University), Arsène Wenger (economics), Gudni Bergsson (law) and Oliver Bierhoff (economics).

To be fair, many of us expect too much from our professionals who cannot do much other than play football. If they were what we take them for, life would be very easy and they would not need agents and managers to run their playing careers and take care of their moneys. This typical example shows how much more help players actually need. As Sukazi goes to court to teach ‘John Legend’ a lesson, we all learn from both, a valuable lesson that we would have paid much to learn - that palyers need much help than meets the eye and that the agents do not do as much for the players as they should. It is that gap that accumulates mistrusts and many take each other for granted As of now, we wish the agent success in court and Major the best on the field.   

Monday, February 24, 2014

Whose title is the English Premier League 2013/2014?


Here are the numbers meant to confuse the neutrals and give hope to the fanatics. Plenty twists and turns are in store as the count down to the end of the season begins. As much as they say figures do not lie, I do not believe the current status of the table and believe me, this picture will be different when the curtain comes down. Our predictions always set Manchester City to top the league with Chelsea and Arsenal depuitsing either jointly or separately. There is little doubt that Liverpool will be in the Champions' League next season as the fourth team on the log. 

The form and performance of City is a huge worry at the moment but the return of Aguero soon will see them stop behaving like senior citizens, and Chelsea seem to be getting the results but are not convincing at all. They get the points week in and week out almost singing the blues but for how long? As for the fragility of Arsenal, it is there for all to see. On their day, as seen by the Rosicky goal, they can gun down anyone with the ease of a hot knife through butter, but who can forget that drubbing at Anfield? The Reds' form is receiving a decent rub from lady luck despite Luis Suarez not netting prolifically as we know him to. As his goalscoring form picks up, Liverpool will be walking really tall. I guess Manchester United fans will be forgiving to David Moyes as their rise to decent levels will bring less worries but they will not be in Europe by their current form, especially through a top four finish. See the numbers below courtesy of www.soccerway.com.

TABLES

#TeamMPWDLFADPLast 5 matchesH2H
12718634921+2860WDWWD
22718545227+2559WDLWD
32618356927+4257WDLWW
42717557035+3556WWWDW
52715573633+350LWWDL
6Previous rank: 72713684331+1245WDDLW
7Previous rank: 62612953727+1045LLWLD
8Previous rank: 927124113338-540WLLLD
9Previous rank: 82710983832+639LWDWD
10Previous rank: 112787123134-331WWWWD
11Previous rank: 132786132931-230WLWDL
12Previous rank: 102777133640-428LDWLW
13Previous rank: 122777132737-1028LDLLW
14Previous rank: 162777132039-1928WLDLD
15Previous rank: 142769122742-1527LDDWL
16Previous rank: 152682161836-1826LWLWW
1727413103139-825DDLDL
182666142642-1624LLWWD
192757151948-2922LDLWL
202763182759-3221DLDLL
UEFA Champions League
Champions League qualifiers
UEFA Europa League
Relegation