Leopards deny buying All-Stars status

Black Leopards manager Tshifhiwa Thidiela has dismissed claims that they have already bought All-Stars’ status in the Motsepe Foundation Championship.

Leopards were relegated to the ABC Motsepe League at the end of the season and it is believed that they bought All-Stars’ status as they look to remain in the second tier of South African football.

But Thidiela insists that is not the case. “As a family, we are still debating on whether to buy it or not. Soccer, from the business perspective, does not make money,” Thidiela explained to Sowetan yesterday. 

“We now put between R600,000 and R900,000 every month to run the team. Now, there is nothing that comes back. The only pressure that we have is Black Leopards is an institution, it has a rich history.

“It forms an integral part of South African football, but most importantly, it makes a lot of difference in people’s lives.

“People are putting us under pressure, saying it will be sad for the Limpopo Province and SA for a brand like this not to be part of football.

“So that’s the argument that we are having as a family, to say, which direction are we going to go. We are also deliberating to see if there are teams available and if we can get back, then we can go and acquire that.”

Thidiela added that they still wanted to be part of football as it created jobs for people even though they were not getting returns on their investments.

“Our main focus is on development, and the reason we had a team was to make a difference in people’s lives, especially in Limpopo,” he said.

“It will be based on where you try and make sure that we do develop some players. As I said, football is not making money and ours was just an issue of social responsibility more than anything else.

“We do have other businesses that we are looking at and football is part of our DNA even though our involvement was limited as a family.

All Stars chairman Lunga Ncwana could not be reached for a comment as his cellphone rang unanswered.