Khune affair sets precedent for abuse

Itumeleng Khune's return to Kaizer Chiefs seems a great move, but in effect it is a defeat for the struggle for better wages in the Premier Soccer League.

Khune was by no means a poor earner at Chiefs, with reports suggesting his salary was nearing R4-million a season before his attempt to hanker for more triggered a backlash that saw the club's bosses telling him he was free to go.

But the goalkeeper's failure to secure a move away from Naturena, and "better" pay, is likely to resonate throughout the entire league, where, as Sowetan has revealed, there are clubs which still practise slavery.

Smaller clubs which do not own a fraction of Chiefs' resources will from now on use Khune as a prime example for players to suppress their urge of asking for an improved contract.

These clubs will peddle the dangerous line that we are now seeing - consequent to Khune's reportedly cap-in-hand return to Naturena - that players should stop being "greedy".

The fact that even Mamelodi Sundowns, a club owned by one of South Africa's richest men, apparently also baulked at Khune's demands will add credence to claims of greed on the players' part.

We do not know for sure what Khune's demands that led to a long standoff with Chiefs were. Could he have been asking for payment for his image being used to market the money-spinning Carling Black Label Cup, from where the club reportedly got R10-million, yet we hardly know if players get even an appearance fee?

Could Khune have been unhappy with the club's current bonus structure? Only he can tell us.

But because he had to return to Chiefs and "beg" for his job, we will never know the whole truth.

Thus this Khune episode, unfortunately, will forever silence not only him, but other players who may feel they have a right to up their financial standing. Their bosses will tell them that the best goalkeeper in the country, and arguably the most popular, was on the brink of unemployment before "he humbled himself" and asked for his job back.

The slave wages - with some players earning as little as R5000 at clubs like Polokwane City and Ajax Cape Town - will continue unabated.

Khune had the fortune of being accepted back. Others won't be as lucky. They will be thrown out onto the street the moment they dare raise their voice over inadequate pay. And there have been many of those who are forced to hop from club to club with drastically reduced wages before fading into oblivion.

One of the best ways to curb this is for players to speak with one voice.

Sadly, their so-called union, Safpu, is a toothless dog. Such is Safpu's irrelevance that it was as shocked as us that there are still players earning R5000!

Khune got his job back and is now still able to earn a decent living.

But others won't be as fortunate, because some club owners - for whom the word "greed" doesn't even explain their exploitative ways - will always cite his standoff with Chiefs as a perfect example of why players must accept whatever is offered.