Publications
Partners
The Kermit Erasmus saga that briefly engulfed South African football this week shows the darker side of the game as unscrupulous individuals seek to profit from underhand dealings.
In a nutshell, the Orlando Pirates forward was approached some weeks ago by an as yet unnamed agent who claimed to have an offer on the table from Egyptian giants Zamalek, the same club that The Buccaneers faced this past weekend in the CAF Confederation Cup.
The money, reported to be a monthly salary of $30 000 plus bonus add-ons, caught the attention of the player straight away and he decided to have a think about.
I know for a fact that he spoke to his former coach at Pirates, Roger de Sa, now in charge of Ajax Cape Town, some three weeks ago about whether the move would be right for him.
So this has been brewing for some time and when stories emanated in Egypt, the South African media jumped on them.
A R20-million transfer fee, which would have made Erasmus the second most expensive player to leave the PSL ever after Thulani Serero, was banded about and it was being reported as basically a done deal.
Except nobody bothered to make the one phonecall that would have cleared it up in an instant.
If Pirates had accepted a transfer fee from Zamalek, they would have been duty-bound to acknowledge this to Erasmus’s contracted representative, European-based business manager Rob Moore.
Pirates have an excellent administrative team, headed by Floyd Mbele, and I have no doubt that had they accepted an offer they would have followed the correct channels.
When I spoke to Moore on Tuesday, he knew nothing about the deal and after making a few phonecalls himself, uncovered its bogus nature.
The first problem with the alleged transfer was that Zamalek have already signed three foreign players for the season and are not allowed by league rules to add a fourth.
The second problem, Zamalek coach Jesualdo Ferreira told Moore, was that they had no interest at all in signing the striker. Ouch.
Erasmus still has some explaining to do to Moore, like why he sat on this alleged offer for at least three weeks and never said anything. But that is for them to sort out.
Moore also revealed that this was not the first time that bogus agents had messed with one of his players after a similar incident involving Bafana Bafana midfielder May Mahlangu and Hull City.
It appears as though these shadowy figures approach players and clubs with offers on official stationary with the hope of sealing commission payments or favour before anyone notices.
Or they hope that if the player agrees, they can then persuade the ‘buying’ club that they have deal ‘in the bag’ and can make a quick transaction.
It is, of course, ethically and morally wrong, but football is big business and as we all know, where big sums of money are involved, corruption tends to follow.
We can only take the lessons from this as players, clubs and the media. Check
your sources and know who you are talking to!
Nick Said is the Business Director at Mzanzi Football.
Disclaimer: Sport24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on Sport24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Sport24.
