Chippa mull PE offer
CHIPPA United are agonising over an offer to move their club from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth next season as the Eastern Cape government and Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality seek a top-flight soccer franchise and another tenant for the World Cup stadium.
"It's a decision I'm pondering," the National First Division champions' charismatic chairman Siviwe "Chippa" Mpengesi said.
"We are in talks with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and stadium management. They want us to use the stadium in Port Elizabeth for our home matches. Their offer is a permanent move or nothing," Mpengesi said.
"They have made it clear that they don't want the stadium to become a white elephant. For us, it is an opportunity to grow because there is no professional soccer club there."
The Eastern Cape has been looking to have a PSL franchise since Bay United, albeit after relegation, relocated to Polokwane and became Polokwane City.
In recent seasons, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality paid for the likes of Maritzburg United and Orlando Pirates to play a few of their league games at the stadium, but want a permanent team.
They paid about R1-million per match, but Mpengesi did not reveal any figures of the offer he has been given.
"The proposal was put on my table and I'm still digesting it. In the end I have not decided whether it's good for me and the club or not," Mpengesi said.
"The talks between us and them are at an advanced stage. The money that they are offering us to relocate to Port Elizabeth is really good. To run a Premier Soccer League team requires money and I've put a lot of my money into the club up to now, but maybe it's time to run it as a proper business."
Safa provincial secretary Isaac Klaas confirmed that the Nyanga based team could relocate to the metro.
"Mpengesi called me to set up a meeting to discuss areas of cooperation," Klass said.
According to Safa-NMB vice-president Monde Mhletywa, an announcement will be made in the next 10 days.
"Mpengesi said he was in talks with both the municipality and the provincial government and would make an announcement as soon as the loose ends were tied up.
"As a soccer body, we are happy that we will have professional soccer in the city. However, we are hopeful that, unlike the previous teams, they do not use us but add value to local amateur soccer.
"Teams like Maritzburg United arrived with ready-made teams the day before the match and left the next day.
"None of our local players benefited from the money ploughed into the teams by both the municipality and provincial government.
"If Chippa do relocate, they should become a truly PE team by conducting coaching clinics and even setting up an academy so that our boys can identify with the team and hopefully play professionally."
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki confirmed that municipal representatives were negotiating with the Chilly Boys' owner behind closed doors.
"The stadium management is handling the whole process of the negotiations on behalf of the municipality and the discussions are in an advance stage because the talks with Chippa United are not something new.
"Remember, we also approached Chippa to come and play some of their home games in PE before when we brought Maritzburg United here." - Mark Gleeson, Mthetho Ndoni and Mogan Segadavan
