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Last week’s insurance payout on the policy taken out by Orlando Pirates on their late goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa caused a bit of a furore.
Most people who took to social-media platforms lambasted the Buccaneers, singling out boss Irvin “Iron Duke” Khoza for scathing criticism for having the temerity to split the R4 million loot between the club and the late player’s children.
However, closer scrutiny of the matter should reveal that the criticism stemmed from sheer ignorance or misinformation.
According to experts in such matters, Pirates were legally entitled to keep all the money because they were the ones who’d taken out the policy in the first place, and had been paying the premiums.
It was disappointing to see the SA Football Players’ Union (Safpu) joining the chorus and saying they were fighting with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to have the money from the policy paid entirely to the players’ dependants.
This from an organisation that has in the past announced that they had joined hands with a financial services company to educate players on money matters. It leaves one flabbergasted and can mean one of only two things.
It could easily mean that the union took a populist view and played to the gallery – or were just flaunting their ignorance in public.
Should the latter be true, it should send a shiver down the spine of many football followers – if such individuals are ignorant about the issues they are supposed to be enlightening the players about, it’s a case of the blind leading the blind.
This also drove home the point that despite all the players who die as paupers after an illustrious career and those who become destitute not long after hanging up their boots, most of the current crop of players are still not wiser.
It is obvious that professional players are not nearly astute enough when it comes to money matters.
If it were not so, there would not even have been a reason for Pirates to share the insurance policy payout.
Meyiwa’s dependants would have been well covered by the player’s personal insurance policies and investments. There would have been a will determining who received what from his estate rather than us having to witness his father, wife and child’s mother squabbling over the possession of his cars.
This is a challenge to the union.
Maybe, rather than fighting with the clubs and the PSL over trivial matters, they should be joining hands in establishing structures that ensure a proper spread of players’ salaries from the day they sign their first contract. The union, the PSL and Safa – particularly where national team players are concerned – should be ensuring a proper payment structure is in place.
This structure must ensure that in the salaries that players earn, all possibilities and eventualities are well taken care of.
It is quite alarming when one hears that players who earn anything up to R450 000 per month, or commonly in the region of R200 000 to R300 000, are somehow broke at the end of each month.
It is scary to find out that most of them drive fancy cars – usually more than one – while staying in townhouse complexes where they pay rent. When not on the field of play, they spend most of their time gallivanting with different women and hopping from one drinking hole to the next.
The notion that when you take care of the cents, the rands take care of themselves, should be driven home as soon as a player earns his first pay packet.
One of the most prudent ways of looking at money is to regard your first salary as a 100% increase, because you move from zero to whatever the amount is, no matter how small or big.
But I guess, to some, more especially those not schooled on matters money, this will sound like Greek. This is where the union and football’s governing bodies should come in and play the role of guardians.
Follow me on Twitter @Sbu_Mseleku
