Feedback from the PLFA EXCO Meeting of the 18th of November 2018

2018-11-19 Sizwe Nkosi (PLFA) Member Communications 0

The PLFA Executive Committee held its meeting on the 18th of November 2018 at Molambo Hall on the accession of the Postponed Executive Committee Meeting. This follows the Ordinary Executive Committee Meeting of the 11th of November 2018 that did not materialise due to the quorum not being met.

This is a report, not minutes, as minutes for the meeting are being prepared by the Secretary and are used for official purposes. This report is just to inform the members about the developments within the association.

ATTENDANCE

The Committee expressed concern on the attendance by members of the Executive Committee Meetings. Mr. Mpho Motala, the Head of Coaches (Technical Development) has not attended any Executive Committee meetings since he was elected in August 2018. The committee resolved on the following where he is concerned:

  1. Motala is suspended as a member of the Executive Committee with immediate effect;
  2. A letter will be written to him to opt either to resign, or let the Executive Committee submit a motion for his dismal to the Congress;
  3. Co-opt an Acting Head of Coaches, an appointment of which is to be confirmed on Mr. Motala’s resignation, or on confirmation of his dismissal by the Congress, whichever comes first.

Members of the Executive Committee were further urged to prioritise the association. There is an Annual Calendar with all the Executive Committee dates. Members who are unable to attend these meeting in an acceptable frequency will have to decide if they are able to serve the association or not, or the Executive Committee will make that determination on their behalf, for which it is entitled to.

LEAGUES AND COMPETITIONS

League Seasons

Super League has kicked off the 2018 / 19 Super League Season in November with 13 teams (see the list below).

# Club
1  REAL JABULANI
2  Mountain Movers
3 BAKWENA
4  BRAZAVILLE FC
5  Atteridgeville Young Zebras
6  JACARANDA CALLIES
7 VIKINGS
8  Young Tigers
9  Heroes
10  EC Manchester
11  SSS United
12  Shinning Stars
13  PRETORIA CARDINALS

We wish the above clubs well in competing in the Super League for the 2018 / 19 Super League Season, which will complete in May 2019.

The rest of the Junior Leagues will complete by the 8th of December 2018, although the league winners have already been determined during the weekend of the 10th / 11th of November 2018.

 

League Administration and Management System

Previously the association reported that it will use the MySAFA portal as the league administration system for the association (see “MySAFA Is on the Right Direction” article). However, the Committee, on discussing the finer details of the system, discovered that MySAFA cannot capture the line up details, which is a critical component of the management of the leagues. In order to strengthen the administration and management of leagues going forward, starting with the Super League, the following were resolved:

  1. LeagueRepublic will continue to be the system for the administration and management of logs for the association for the current and ensuing season;
  2. The TUT student programme must be utilised to have an Administrator to capture the fixtures, match reports, and line-up details going forward;
  3. The association must have Match Commissioners / Ground Managers per ground who will administer and control team list and reports per ground;
  4. The association must procure team list duplicate booklets for use by the teams at the grounds, and use by the Administrator to capture at the Office, eliminating delays.
  5. The fixtures, match results, line up details, yellow and red cards, Referees, must be captured weekly, and the log tables also updated weekly.

ADMINISTRATION

Vice Secretary

The Chairperson reported that he had a chat with the Vice Secretary about the availability and performance of the Vice Secretary. In the discussion the Vice-Secretary raised some concerns of the overlap of work between himself, the Secretary, Head of Football and a volunteer from Sammots Football Club. He had already started writing an email about that. He was advise to submit such a concern so that it can be discussed and resolved. The Committee resolved on the following:

  1. A meeting to be set up between the Chairperson, the Secretary, the Head of Football and the Vice-Secretary in order to discuss and resolve the concerns raised by the Vice Secretary;
  2. The performance expectations on the Vice Secretary’s role to be confirmed;
  3. Vice-Secretary to commit to perform his roles, and be available to the association, like for the meetings of the Executive Committee.

 

Administrative Workshop

The Secretary reported that earlier on the day (18 Nov 2018) he held a workshop with the members of the association in order to build the capacity on the administrative role to be played by the members. Part of the training elements were the ability for the members to register players on MySAFA for the association to approve. This will definitely reduce the bottleneck in the registration of players. The majority of the members did not come for the workshop. The Committee therefore resolved as follows:

  1. Corrective Action Requests to be raised for each club that was not represented at the workshop;
  2. An Admission of Guilt process to be initiated as part of this activity, and only those who do not admit guilt and pay fines must be taken through to the Disciplinary Hearing process;
  3. The Secretary to reconvene the workshop as soon as possible.

REFEREES

Payment of Referees

The fact that Referees must be paid from the back is a resolution that was taken by Congress, and as such has to be implemented. Members of the Committee were requested to not be ambiguous about this imperative, and ensure that they make it work. The frustration that are experienced by the Referees currently is that they are not getting paid, and no one tells them when they are going to get paid. This is a problem and needs to be addressed. Therefore the committee resolved on the following:

  1. All Referees must be paid by the 20th of November 2018;
  2. All Clubs must be invoiced by the 24th of November 2018 and be given 30 days to pay. In such invoices there must be itemised information on which matches they are being billed for;
  3. There must be a formal communication to all Referees that they must no longer take money from the clubs at the grounds;
  4. There must also be a formal communications to all clubs that they must no longer pay Referees at the grounds;
  5. All Referees must be registered;
  6. All those who will disregard the above must be disciplined.

 

Referees Fees for Super League

Super League Clubs have been issued with the invoices that contain the Registration Fee and Referees fees. This is a step towards the right direction. The fees are calculated at R80.00 multiplied by the number of matches to be played in the season.  The Committee resolved as follows:

  1. Each Referee will be paid R50.00. This means that, for two teams paying R80.00 each, they will make R160.00 per match. Paying Referees R50.00 each will cost the association R150.00 per match. The R10.00 will be for the befit of the association and must be used to further the cause of improving the Refereeing standards. The Committee;
  2. For Super League, there must be three Referees officiating. If one officiates the match, that one Referee will be paid R50.00. The Referees who would not have fulfilled their appointments must be disciplined.

COACHES

Development Curriculum

As part of the vision of the association, there is a need for a development curriculum to be established and implemented at club and squad level. The association needs to strengthen the developmental flavour in its operations. A research needs to be undertaken to find a workable way of establishing such a curriculum and an operational frameworks thereof. This matter will be discussed more during the next meeting. The Chairperson requested members to reflect on this imperative so that there can be qualitative discussions on it, and inherently, qualitative resolutions. The member to be co-opted in the role of the Head of Coaches will drive this initiative.

 

Cross Participation of Players

A strong case has been put on the table against the continued cross participation of players. This mechanism does not server the purpose of a developmental agenda. It guises itself as a promotional element, and yet it is being abused. There is evidence that there are clubs that play Under 13 in one match, and then use the majority of those same players, if not all, to play the Under 15 match. Such is abuse and works against the objects of the association. In addition, there is also evidence that some of the clubs do not even have eleven players register for the entire season for specific divisions. There is also evidence that the majority of clubs that did well this season have indeed registered the required number of players per division, when the converse is also true. Some have register 9 players, and some 3. Lastly, this practice is a lie by itself. It seeks to make believe that the association has a number of leagues that it technically does not have, or making clubs believing that they have a number of divisions that they technically do not have. In order for the association to succeed and reach its vision, it needs to be honest with itself, prioritise development over competition, and build on a sound foundation. Therefore the Committee resolved as follows:

  1. Cross-participation of players across different leagues will be scrapped for the current Super League Season, and the ensuing development season going forward.
  2. The above must be communicated with the members so that as they plan the season for next year, they can do so realistically.
  3. The association must access lower numbers of teams per league, and players for club, in order to build from a profound reality.

 

Squad Maintenance

There is recognition from from the season 2014 PLFA squads have been winning and dominating the region. However, in 2018, there was a worrying drought of victories of the squads. Many of the failures emanated from lack of preparedness, and not from poor quality of players and of coaches. In order to turn this corner, there needs to be the creation of ever ready squads, coupled with the development curriculum at squad level. The Committee resolved as follows on this matter:

  1. Squads must player against the top teams on the log on monthly bases;
  2. Squads must be forever ready to play competitively and attain victories at Inter-LFA level and higher.

 

Coaches Qualifications

In 2017 the association hosted Coaches courses. Many coaches attended and many did so without paying. Those who did not pay, their certificates are held in the office, awaiting for their payment. In addition to that, the association made a commitment that from 2019, only Coaches who are qualified must be allowed on the pitch. The member to be co-opted as the Head of Coaches must enforce that in 2019. This may be done in a phased approach, rather than the big bang approach.

REGIONAL MATTERS

Summoning of PLFA Before the Regional Executive Committee

PLFA was summoned to appear before the Regional Executive Committee for its perceived inciting of the rebellion against the Regional Executive Committee. PLFA Executive Committee clarify to the REC that it was exercising its right to raise concerns together with the sister LFAs who experience the same constructions, and that it was acting in good faith in all that it did, and as such, did not hide its engagements and escalations. PLFA further pointed the weaknesses, omissions and failures of the REC that lead to PLFA and other LFAs jumping up and down trying to get relief on the failures of the REC.

The REC, on recognition of its own flaws, apologised for the issues resulting from its omissions and failures. It committed to write an apology to all LFAs on same, particularly on the failure of ensuring that the region has one Constitution through which it operates. In return, the region saw fault in PLFA calling a meeting with LFAs when the REC was not reconvening the collapsed Extra Ordinary Congress, believing that PLFA did not exhaust all the open avenues prior to doing that. The REC also believed that PLFA did not have the right to escalate the matter to SAFA National. As such, the REC wanted to take PLFA through to the Disciplinary Committee. At the end, the REC resorted to given PLFA a verbal warning.

PLFA maintains that everything that it did is not violating any prescripts. In fact, it believes it was and still is guided by the prescripts in conducting itself. As such, PLFA will not be deterred nor be silenced by this. The association will not knowingly and consciously let itself be complicit in the face of maladministration and anarchy in the region. Its action will always be bias toward the region as an organisation, in accordance with the written down statutes, Rules, Regulations, Policies and Directives.

The region never sent the apology that it committed to send to all members.

True to what PLFA and other LFAs have been pushing for, the date of the Extra-Ordinary Congress was released, and was the 17th of November 2018, which PLFA attended. The apparently an apology referred to here-above was typed, signed and printed, and it was put in the packages for the members at the Extra-ordinary Congress. The lack of trust saga on the part of the REC continues.

 

Summoning of Soshanguve before the Regional Executive Committee

Similar with the summoning of PLFA to appear before the REC, the same was done with Soshanguve Local Football Association two weeks later. Soshanguve’s charge before the REC is that they are the cause of the abandonment of the Extra-Ordinary Congress. Although the was a recommendation that if the REC feels so strong that Soshanguve is the cause of the Abandonment, then the REC must institute a Disciplinary process to deal with the matter. The DC should be the only procedural, and yet competent body to deal with this matter.

The REC, against the latter recommendation, decided to take the matter to the province, and later to national, who advised that the matter be dealt with locally. Coming back from that, instead of effecting the recommendation of the DC, the REC decided to handle the matter by itself, and hence, the summoning of Soshanguve.

Soshanguve came as summoned, and did not continue with the matter as they pleaded procedural unfairness on the part of the REC by not informing them what were they being called, and them not being prepared. The REC decided to let them go. There hasn’t been another sitting of the REC after that to decided whether to still persue Soshanguve as the REC, or to refer the matter to the DC, or to just abandon the issue.

 

Extra-Ordinary Congress

The reconvening of the Extra Ordinary Congress took place on the 18th of November 2018. See the earlier post about this entitled SAFA Tshwane Extra Ordinary Congress. Some really significant damage was done at this Congress.

The President reported that the REC Meetings never happen unless its a postponed meeting that does not need a quorum. He made an example that if there were 16 meetings to be held, 32 attempts would be made. To this, the members laid a charge to the President in that he did not, in his frustration, write to the LFAs, especially those whose Chairperson are not attending, in order to have the issue resolved.

Again, asked about the valid Constitution in use, the President said the REC apologised for the confusion regarding the Constitution, only to find that the apology was slipped into the packages for the members for the Congress, and were not send out to members prior to the Congress. This was seen as an act of dishonesty on the part of the President and the REC.

To the above, members requested that they table a ‘Motion of No Confidence’ against the REC with immediate effect. Members were persuaded to not deal with that motion as it was not on the agenda, but instead, to have the motion registered and be dealt with in two weeks time. The Members agreed. Therefore on the 1st of December, or the 8th of December latest, the ‘motion of no confidence’ will be dealt with at the special Congress to be convene for this purpose.

Other than that, the Congress considered the draft Statutes with the proposed changes from PLFA. At the end, the Congress resolved to effect all the changes as proposed by PLFA on the Constitution and have it circulated within seven days.

FINANCES

Assistance for the Treasurer

The meeting discussed that need for assistance for the Treasurer in carrying out his duties. The workload in Treasury is behind and risks unpreparedness for the annual reports in preparation of the Congress. The Referees payments are way too behind and the clubs have not been invoiced for the Referees Fees. The Treasurer is struggling in terms of the practice of financial management, and understanding the systems in use. The Committee agreed that the Secretary should assist the Treasurer, but help still needs to be solicited. Among other avenues, Mr Seshego Latakgomo will be approached to come an mentor the Treasurer. Mr. Latakgomo is well skilled and experienced in accounting and should be able to assist if he is available.

 

Assets and Inventory Management

During the previous Ordinary Congress the Executive Committee committed to dispose of unwanted assets, like old soccer kits. This has not happened to date. A list of assets needs to be compiled with the relevant attributes, including whether such an asset is in use or not. Also, as the soccer kits will be disposed of,care must be given to the fact that all the squads must play competitively at least once a month. Therefore each squad must have a dedicated soccer kit. Once the list has been compiled by the 23rd of November, then the urgent Executive Committee meeting will be convened to decide on how to dispose of the assets and the inventory.

ORDINARY CONGRESS 2019

Notices and Procedural Matters

The Committee confirmed that the date of the Ordinary Congress for 2019 will be the 26th of January 2019. Therefore notices to members must be prepare now so that members can ready themselves in time. There will be a Convocation on the 21st of January 2019 to present the reports to the members so that these are quickly adopted at the Congress.

 

Annual Reports and Motions

In preparation for the Congress, the following must be done.

  1. The the Annual Report (Activity Report), all Executive Committee members must already compile their yearly reports and send to the Secretary, who will consolidate all these into the Annual Report. This includes the Financial Statements, Budget vs Actual Report, and the Chairperson’s Preamble.
  2. If the Head of Coaches opts not to resign, a motion for his dismissal must be prepared for the Congress to confirm;
  3. The Financial Policy which has been in circulation must be prepared for the adoption by the Congress;
  4. The Amendments to the Constitution (mainly the Electoral Process), the Rules and the Policies must be prepared for adoption by the Congress;
  5. The annual plan for the Affiliate’s AGMs must be prepared for adoption by the Congress;
  6. The Budget for the ensuing year must be prepared for approval by the Congress;
  7. The appointment of Chairpersons of the Disciplinary Committee must be prepared for approval by the Congress;

The Congress must also be presented with the Performance Management Framework for the Executive Committee Members. This will allow the members of the association to know what is expected of each member. This framework is at the advanced stages and have been shared with the members of the Executive Committee. With the final touch-up, which will be discussed during the meeting of the 9th of December 2018, the submission to the Congress on this will be finalised.

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

Goodwill Games

It is with disappointment that the Memorandum of Understanding is still not signed with the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Goodwill Games (LMMGG) and the Lucas Moripe Youth Development (LMYD) organisations, after so many years of contemplating. There was just no focus on this activity. Much focus must be put into this effort next year.

It is time for the Goodwill Games. LMYD has already started engaging our affiliates and yet they have not made a request with the association. It is also reported that there are still monies owned to the association and to the clubs, and yet this happens every year like a vicious cycle. Therefore the following has been resolved upon:

  1. Those members of the EXCO who have been invited to the Goodwill Games WhatsApp group must challenge the organisers to approach the association for approval before going ahead;
  2. The Association will draw up Agreements to be signed with both organisations separately as a condition of the approval. The conditions must mostly seek to protect the association in its responsibility as the custodian of football in Phelindaba, the clubs and the community at large.
  3. The association will approve the tournament only once the Agreements have been signed;
  4. Once approved, on the Referees of the association will be used. These will go as a set together with the appointing officers, who will be the sole appointing officers of the tournaments. Their costs will be included in the agreement;
  5. Once approved, the association will not allow any representation of the association to the structures of the organisers. Anyone who involves him/herself will not be doing so on behalf of the association, and this must be included in the Agreement.
  6. Once approved, a formal communication of participation approval to the affiliates of the association must be made, a communication that should cover affiliates as clubs, and players as members of those clubs. The same must happen with the Referees.
  7. Should the Agreement not be signed by the 7th of December 2018, a formal communication prohibiting participation to the affiliates of the association must be made, a communication that should cover affiliates as clubs, and players as members of those clubs. The same must happen with the Referees.

COMMERCIAL AND MARKETING

Gala Dinner Debrief

Due to the unavailability of the 2nd Vice Chairperson, who is in charge of Marketing, the debrief of the Gala Dinner which took place on the 27th of October 2018 did not happen. This is moved to the next Ordinary Executive Committee Meeting. However, at face value, the event was a success operationally, and not so much of a success financially. The association did not raise as much funds as it hoped to raise. A big part of the downside was because the association’s very member did not support the event overwhelmingly. But there is a room for improvement for next year.

 

Award Ceremony

The award ceremony for 2018 is at the risk of not taking place due to not enough funds. Also as mentioned that the Gala Dinner did not raise as much money as it intended. The worst that can happen is not to have the ceremony, but hand over the prizes to the achieving clubs, including the prize money. At best, with the assistance from Supersport United FC, have a fully fledged ceremony with a gala style set up, and award the achieving clubs and individuals, like the previous ceremony. So Supersport United FC will be followed up on this as a request has been made already. Not to forget, there is a Supersport United signed jersey to be auctioned at the ceremony.

 

Lottery Funding

In partnership with Thaba Tshwane Football Club, the association has applied with Lotto Funding, and is reported to be at the advanced stages. We cross our fingers that it works out.

END

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