Amateur soccer suffers R1 billion losses due to coronavirus

Amateur football has been hardest hit by the coronavirus lockdown with 99% of the South Africa’s football being amateur and the inactivity costing the country more than  R1bn this year, according to Safa.

South African Football Association (Safa) Buffalo City president and NEC member, Mxolisi “Prince” Sibam said the lockdown’s effects were not only financial but also social.

“The impact of the lockdown is economical and social. The amateur leagues have at least 2.5-million players in the country, which is 99.75% of all footballers, coaches, administrators and referees.

“Amateur football contributes at least R1bn to the economy of the country per year [made up of ABC Motsepe Leagues — R200m; regional leagues — R400m and LFA’s (local football associations) R400m]; this is through stipends to players and coaches, transport cost, football playing equipment, prize monies and refreshments and merchandise sold at games during the season,”  Sibam said.

“This industry is now closed with all the lives that depended on it.”

With amateur football “only expected back during lockdown level 1” and the country currently experiencing the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sibam expects the effects of this long inactivity to have a big negative impact, especially socially, on these lower leagues and participants.

“In all, the lockdown has not only impacted financially or economically to players, coaches, referees and teams but also the variety of service providers that service the industry at professional and amateur level.

“The psychological and social impact is also immense as [the inactivity of the] youth leads them to be stressed and engage in various illegal activities including crime, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and violence.  Therefore, the whole football industry is affected,” Sibam said.

According to Sibam, also the deputy-chair  of the Safa audit and risk committee, the NSL and PSL recently announced that its turnover was at least R1b, but “certainly part of this money has been lost” because of the lockdown.

“Safa’s national teams have also lost at least R100m during this period; it should be noted that all international fixtures have been rescheduled.

“Therefore, part of this amount, maybe 50% of it, will be recovered. It should be noted that the reduction in activities has led to the reduction of cost which then cushioned the impact [slightly],” he said.

The amateur leagues have had to look on as professional football returned to action on Saturday with the Nedbank Cup and GladAfrica NFD kicking off over the weekend.

In South Africa, professional teams from the PSL and GladAfrica Championship (National First Division) are members of the NSL, and only they were allowed to start playing under lockdown level 3.

“The agreed regulation [for the] return of the professional leagues are per the guidelines prescribed by Fifa and were confirmed as such with Fifa.

“Training by teams and playing of leagues is currently only permitted for the NSL leagues, which is the PSL and GladAfrica NFD leagues.

“Training by amateur teams and playing of amateur leagues is still prohibited by the SA lockdown regulations.

“The NSL leagues are played based on the agreed regulations between the Safa and the government which were approved by the government prior to the commencement of the professional leagues and competitions. 

“Only the SA government can prescribe regulations that allow sporting activities not federations. Safa therefore is guided by government,”  Sibam said.

“The commitment of Safa is to abide and enforce these regulations and ensure all our members comply with them. We hope that at level one all football activities shall be allowed,” Sibam said.