Why do local clubs conceal transfer fees?
Oscar Gasennelwe | Saturday July 16, 2022 06:00
There is an expectation from fans for clubs to disclose the cost of a player so that they argue about the transfer – and the media too – so they know when to label a player a bargain or a bust.
Fans have a stake in a club through gate-takings, merchandise sales, and other investments. Hence, it is important to avouch that fans also deserve transparency on how the management is using the club’s finances, especially spending on players.
Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) secretary-general Kgosana Masaseng said this has been the union’s contention with the Botswana Football Association (BFA). “From way back, our biggest fight has been the secrecy around the transfers of players, which end up hurting the players and the game itself,” Masaseng said. “For the goodness of governance, FIFA had bought into the idea that this process must be very transparent and we fully support that, which is what we ask of the BFA and the Botswana Football League,” he added.
He said already there is a law, which urges BFA to publicise local transfers. “It is common knowledge that by the application of the law, every March, the BFA must publicise on their website all the transfers that took place in the transfer period,” Masaseng said. The BFA chief executive officer, Mfolo Mfolo said there are no laws that govern the publicising of such matters. “There’s no clause that is compelling the association to publicise such. Only what we should be publishing is the information about intermediary returns,” Mfolo said.
He further explained that it is mostly upon the players and clubs to decide whether they disclose their transfers or not. “This is a governance issue of transparency. It’s mainly up to the likeliness of the clubs and players involved to decide to publicise the transfer as nothing is compelling them to do so,” Mfolo said. “We don’t have any Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol or player regulations that compel them to do so. We hope to meet up with FUB and sort out this issue,” he added.