Molefi Mika

Molefi Mika

John Comitis, the Ajax Cape Town chairman who earlier fiercely protested the awarding of gratuities to members of the sponsorship negotiating committee, has changed his tune.

Comitis, who also took his protest against the rewarding of commissions for sponsorship deals by the PSL to the portfolio committee on sport and recreation in Parliament, is among the executive committee members of the league who will also benefit financially.

Said Comitis yesterday: "I had to do what I had to do and I am happy at least that instead of R160 million being paid out as commission, R70 million will be paid.

"As to how it will be distributed they [PSL Board of Governors] will decide."

Club bosses have agreed to give the negotiating committee that included Irvin Khoza R20 million, which some argue is actually R25 million, and Kaizer Motaung is to get either R15 million or R12,5 million.

Of the other members Trevor Phillips will get R7,5million, with Mato Madlala getting the same amount and Peter Mancer getting R5 million.

The rest of the money is to be shared by PSL executive members Comitis, David Thidiela, Natasha Tsichlas and Goolam Allie, with the exception of Stanley Matthews.

The latter official is excluded by virtue of being an employee of SuperSport International which has a R1,6 billion TV rights deal with the PSL, thus the move would be deemed to be a conflict of interest.

Answering a question, Comitis said: "My surprise is that people agreed to take R70 million of their money to be used as a commission."

He added: "I am not the only one who will be rewarded as all the executive members will get something. The good thing is that almost everybody agreed on this."