The saga over the non-payment of grants to ABC Motsepe league clubs deepened this week, with Safa president Danny Jordaan reportedly flying to East London to intervene.
This while club chairpersons have been hastily summoned to a meeting by the Safa provincial structure at an East London beachfront hotel, where they are expected to be rapped over the knuckles for going to the media with their grievances.
The meeting is scheduled for Sunday, while Jordaan is said to be arriving on Wednesday.
Daily Dispatch reported last week that clubs are owed their monthly grants for two seasons.
With increasing financial woes, the clubs formed the Eastern Cape Clubs Forum (ECCF) under the chairmanship of former PSL side Bush Bucks director Sturu Pasiya.
However, insiders revealed that Safa is not happy with the move, with threats of reprisals mounting.
Since the Dispatch followed the story, Safa has started paying some clubs, although there is still outstanding amounts to the R30,000 per season grants.
Safa’s head of competitions, Thomas Sadiki, confirmed that the soccer regulatory body has started paying some clubs.
He, however, conceded that the clubs were not paid the full amounts, but could not say which clubs are still owed money, nor the amounts paid as he did not have the paperwork at his disposal.
When asked to confirm whether Jordaan was coming to town to discuss a way forward, Sadiki said: “I don’t know.”
The Dispatch has seen the letter inviting the clubs, but the letter doesn’t say anything about the football body’s unhappiness about the clubs going to the media with their grievances.
Instead, a report about the Nedbank Cup, which saw Tornado hosting Kaizer Chiefs at the Sisa Dukashe stadium, is included in the agenda, as well as an update for the second round of the third-tier league.
But insiders have revealed that the clubs will be admonished for the grant saga at the meeting.
Two club owners, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both agreed that something had to be done about the problems they faced on a weekly basis, which mostly speaks to travelling costs. They both said they expect Safa to crack its whip.
“Now that they’ve paid the clubs, they will take advantage and expect us to toe the line.
“Now they’ll think they’ve got a hold on us because they paid us some of the money due to us.
“But I really hope that the president [Jordaan] will be present on Sunday, because we’ve been looking for an opportunity to sit down with him as well,” said one of the club owners.
Another owner said: “We are being summoned to that meeting to be called to order and nothing else, but it’s fine because this meeting is long overdue.”