‘We grow players and then they get offers’

SuperSport United CEO Stan Matthews insists they don’t mind  criticism that they are Mamelodi Sundowns’ feeder team as they have to sell their best players to survive.

In the past few years, SuperSport have parted with many key players who joined their crosstown rivals Masandawana and they have since been labelled as a feeder club. Players such as Ronwen Williams, Teboho Mokoena, Sipho Mbule, Aubrey Modiba and Grant Kekana have joined a growing list of footballers who have moved to Chloorkop.

“We have to sell players as part of the funding model. We bring players in at a low cost and get them to a certain level beyond, which I can’t pay them what other clubs can pay them,” Matthews said.

“And I’m paying my top player this amount and Sundowns come and offer two or three [times] more, so that’s the time where we say ‘we are not going to hold this kid back, he has added value to our club and helped us to achieve our objective’.

“All the players that have been sold helped us win trophies. Williams won trophies with us, Mokoena, Mbule – despite off-the-field stuff – won the trophies with us.”

Matthews also revealed that the money they got from Mokoena’ sale has been invested in their academy, which has produced talented players in the past.

“All the players have been sold for top dollar and all went and made good money after they left SuperSport. So we are not ashamed that players will come to us and leave,” he said.

“But if they leave us with a trophy in the cabinet, if they leave us with funding that will help us in the next level like Teboho who went to Sundowns and everyone said ooh we are the feeder club.

“It is irrelevant to me where a player goes. It’s not like we are not ambitious. There is a time when we say we consolidate our club and we are rebuilding for a new face and we are doing that.

“I bought these players for free and I’m selling them for millions. That’s the business and it is not like we take the money and buy ourselves new cars and spend it on holidays.

“Whatever comes in we invest it in our academies and we produce more junior players than any other clubs in the country, so that’s where we think we can survive. So we will take that criticism of selling – that’s what other clubs do and sell their best players and they survive.”