KICK OFF’s Zola Doda has jumped into the fray and penned a considered letter to new PSL CEO Brand de Villiers.

First and foremost, congratulations on your appointment as the new PSL CEO but please don’t expect a ticker-tape reception in the middle of Sandton City because our fans do not know you or what your job really entails.

I’ve been a die-hard football fan since my first ever match, which was the 1988 Bob Save Super Bowl Final between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, and I have been a journalist for more than 14 years – but up until today I still don’t really know the function of the PSL CEO.

Over the last decade I’ve seen PSL CEOs come and go and I can’t really tell if that has had a negative or positive impact on our football because, like I said, I don’t know what the PSL CEO really does. What I know for sure is that the League chairman, Dr Irvin Khoza, assisted by the board of governors are doing a relatively good job in running the League. And when there are sponsorship announcements, they are made by the chairman, not the CEO.

After reading your recent comments that crowd attendance is something that you want to focus on, at least that gave me a clue about where you want to start. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 15 years, the crowd attendance problem doesn’t need research. It is mainly caused by the poor standard of our League. When the League top goalscorer finishes the season with 13 goals and the second top goalscorer finishes with 12 goals after scoring four goals in the first match that is certainly not going to help in attracting big crowds. Our fans are not dumb; they want to see quality football all the time.

Please remember that the reigning League champions, Kaizer Chiefs, only won 50 percent of their matches (15 wins out of 30), and still managed to take the League. The team that finished third, Orlando Pirates, won two out of their last 12 matches of the season but they were in contention to win the League until match day 28. Where else in the world does that happen?

Instead of wasting money on crowd attendance research, perhaps your first job should be to inform all the PSL clubs that, as from next season, they can only register 25 players (+5 youngsters) per window period. In this way, clubs like Mamelodi Sundowns will stop signing everything that walks and focus more on quality.

At the moment clubs can sign and register as many players they want, and that is a big problem which is killing the quality of our League. Mamelodi Sundowns have more than 50 quality players on their books; these are players who could easily be at other teams. And it’s not only Sundowns, other teams have bloated squads as well. By getting teams to register 25+5 players we will see more quality and the players themselves will have more of a chance of playing.

But this is just one of the ideas I have. If you want more I will gladly assist you. My office hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, and I do not attend Chippa United matches.
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