Khabo Zondo (Gallo)

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According to a statement on the club’s official website, those were among several decisions taken by the club’s board of directors at a special meeting they held in PE on Wednesday.

Soon after their relegation, the club was increasingly under financial pressure and the owners even contemplated selling citing lack of support from the local government.

“Following an extensive consultation process and taking into account the interests of soccer in this region, we have decided to stay on,” said Bay United chairperson Sipho Pityana after the board meeting.

The move ends months of uncertainty and speculation about the future of the club and should bring joy to soccer lovers, especially in the Eastern Cape.

“Representations from the regional affiliate of the South African Football Association (SAFA), the Bay United Supporters Club, local NGOs and business people played a major part in our decision. We were also persuaded by the government’s strong statement of intent,” Pityana said.

Last month national Sports and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile implored Bay United bosses to reconsider their decision. This after the club’s sole shareholder, Izingwe Holdings, indicated that it had received - and was seriously considering - four unsolicited bids.

Upon discovering that only one of the interested entities was keen to keep the club in the Eastern Cape, SAFA and other interested parties called on Stofile to intervene, asking the minister to do everything in his power to prevent the loss of the only professional soccer side that the province currently has.

Stofile subsequently set up a task team, with the Eastern Cape provincial government’s MEC for sport, Xoliswa Tom, as its head. The task team has been talking to Bay United to determine what the three tiers of government could do to assist the club financially or in kind.

Bay United has placed it on record that it is expensive to run a professional soccer club from Port Elizabeth, far away from everyone that the club has to play against. The situation is made worse by what the club considers to be the local municipality’s “hostile” attitude towards soccer – apparent in the municipality’s unwillingness to give the club affordable access to stadium facilities from where it can practice and play its home games.

The decisions taken at Wednesday’s board meeting effectively mean that Bay United’s three teams can now begin with their respective preparations for the 2009/10 season.

The senior team’s first National First Division (NFD) fixture, a home game against Cape Town side Vasco Da Gama, is provisionally set for August 22.

While the club looks set to retain a number of the players who made up the Premier League squad, a significant number of them may either be put on transfer, sold to other clubs interested in their services, or have their contracts terminated.

“The club has been communicating with all players, their agents and managers, discussing contractual issues,” Pityana said, “we should be able to conclude that process by the end of this coming weekend”.

Pityana said the club’s management team was hard at work trying to ensure that all the players who will form part of the new season’s senior squad will be able to report for duty on Monday 29 June 2009.

Only once negotiations have been finalized with all the players, their managers or agents, will the club go public with the senior team’s 2009/10 squad.

Upon their return to training, though, Bay United players won’t find head coach Khabo Zondo.

The Wednesday board of directors meeting agreed not to renew Zondo’s contract, which expires at the end of July.

“Bay United would like to thank Khabo for his contribution in the months that he was in charge. We’ve decided to look for a new coach,” Pityana said.

Although the rest of the technical team is yet to be finalised – and probably won’t be until a new coach is found – the board has appointed Eddie “Veza” Dyaloyi, who has been Zondo’s assistant, in a caretaker capacity until the club decides on a permanent appointment soon.