Premier Soccer League mourns death of marketing guru Peter ‘Squire’ Mancer

Long-time marketing guru of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) Peter Mancer has died, the league said.

Mancer was a founding administrator of the PSL in its inception in the 1996-97 season and credited with many of the league’s marketing initiatives over the years as SA domestic top-flight football became unrecognisably professional and wealthy.

Affectionately nicknamed 'Squire', he was among the negotiators of the sponsorship and television rights deals of the 2000s that saw the PSL become worth hundreds of millions of rand.

Mancer battled severe lung illness for a number of years and was housebound during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The PSL is mourning the sad passing of Peter ‘Squire’ Mancer,” the league said on Monday evening.

“Mancer spent many years as a PSL marketing and broadcasting specialist adviser.”

PSL chair Irvin Khoza said of his the death of his close associate: “We express our sincere condolences to the Mancer family. Your loss is indeed our loss.

“Together with you, we will miss the gentle giant — ‘Mancer the dancer’. When I think about Squire, I think of pedigree, he was one of a kind.

“Dependable, tenacious, abundance of energy. His word was bankable.”

The PSL said the “Mancer family will announce funeral arrangements in due course”.