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Cape Town - There's currently no offer on the table from the Golden Lions to lure the services of Springbok centre Frans Steyn to Johannesburg.
Steyn's agent, Gerrie Swart, confirmed to the Volksblad newspaper last week that Steyn is considering a return to South Africa, which sparked renewed interest as to which union would be interested in Steyn's services.
"We are busy negotiating with Racing (Steyn's club in France). Frans will always consider playing in South Africa. He wants to play for the Springboks. But there is nothing concrete," said Swart, who was in France discussing future plans with the Bok centre.
The Lions fought hard for Steyn's services earlier this year when the union's former business partner, Robert Gumede, was keen to lure the Springbok to the union. But the split between the GLRU and Gumede's GUMA TAC-consortium put paid to such hopes at the time.
And Lions' provisional CEO, Ruben Moggee, confirmed to the Rapport newspaper that they haven't made any offer for Steyn.
This comes, despite their coach, John Mitchell admitting they would enjoy having a player of the calibre of Steyn on their books.
The Lions have since forged a new business partnership with businessman Altmann Allers, but it looks unlikely that they will spend big in the near future.
There were rumours last week that the union would only be able to pay their players' salaries until the end of December but Kevin de Klerk, President of the GLRU, strongly denied these claims.
Even if the Lions are experiencing big money problems, they have in any case started to manage their budget by not offering contracts to several players for next season.
Up to 20 players' contracts weren't renewed at the end of the 2011 season and the GLRU is apparently in talks with the South African Rugby Players' Association to get more players' contracts moved over to other unions. It does, however, not include their top players whom recently won the Currie Cup, but rather fringe players who hardly featured for the first team.
The Lions are apparently aiming to keep up to three contracted players in each position, which gives them a target of between 45 and 50 players.
Steyn's agent, Gerrie Swart, confirmed to the Volksblad newspaper last week that Steyn is considering a return to South Africa, which sparked renewed interest as to which union would be interested in Steyn's services.
"We are busy negotiating with Racing (Steyn's club in France). Frans will always consider playing in South Africa. He wants to play for the Springboks. But there is nothing concrete," said Swart, who was in France discussing future plans with the Bok centre.
The Lions fought hard for Steyn's services earlier this year when the union's former business partner, Robert Gumede, was keen to lure the Springbok to the union. But the split between the GLRU and Gumede's GUMA TAC-consortium put paid to such hopes at the time.
And Lions' provisional CEO, Ruben Moggee, confirmed to the Rapport newspaper that they haven't made any offer for Steyn.
This comes, despite their coach, John Mitchell admitting they would enjoy having a player of the calibre of Steyn on their books.
The Lions have since forged a new business partnership with businessman Altmann Allers, but it looks unlikely that they will spend big in the near future.
There were rumours last week that the union would only be able to pay their players' salaries until the end of December but Kevin de Klerk, President of the GLRU, strongly denied these claims.
Even if the Lions are experiencing big money problems, they have in any case started to manage their budget by not offering contracts to several players for next season.
Up to 20 players' contracts weren't renewed at the end of the 2011 season and the GLRU is apparently in talks with the South African Rugby Players' Association to get more players' contracts moved over to other unions. It does, however, not include their top players whom recently won the Currie Cup, but rather fringe players who hardly featured for the first team.
The Lions are apparently aiming to keep up to three contracted players in each position, which gives them a target of between 45 and 50 players.
