Mbabane: The Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) executive members are reportedly entitled to 10 percent share of every premier league sponsorship deal.
This is not rubbing off well with the PLE Board of Governors who feel this arrangement is benefitting individuals as opposed to teams.
Apparently, this arrangement was initiated by the late PLE chairman Victor Gamedze as a way of motivating the executive committee members to be more vigorous in finding sponsorships. However, some Governors feel this privilege is now being abused as most of the current Premier league sponsorships are not new yet the executive members are claiming the ten percent.
This means the executive members led by Chairman Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula shared E1.8 million when the E18 million MTN Premier League covering three years was launched recently. For every season of the three years, E6 million is reserved, which means the executive members get E600 000 to share every season. This applies to the other tournaments including EswatiniBank Cup, Eswatini Charity Cup and Ingwenyama Cup.
“It is understandable when you get the ten percent share for a new sponsor, not all sponsors that were negotiated by Victor Gamedze. This has to be stopped because it is now a money-making scheme for some people yet teams are not getting anything,” revealed a PLE Governor.
Apparently, this money (ten percent share) is used in a special bank account exclusively for the executive members.
This issue is being kept under wraps but it has been gathered that it will be one of the main topics of discussion during the PLE Annual General Meeting (AGM) in a few months from now. PLE COO Pat Vilakati was sought for a comment but his cellphone was not answered at the time of going to press.
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