Premier Soccer League chairperson Irvin Khoza has hit back at the South African Football Association by threatening to take legal action against the recently announced partnership between the footballing body and OUTsurance.

Last week, Safa announced a five-year sponsorship deal with OUTsurance worth R50-million aimed at ‘facilitating the skills training development of referees to ensure sound judgement in the field of play’.

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The deal, however, has questioned by Khoza and the PSL who claimed that the sponsorship is in conflict with the rights of Nedbank and Absa, who sponsor the league.

Safa then came out with a strongly worded response which read: ‘It is Safa that has licensed the NSL, which is a stakeholder, to administer and run professional football in South Africa.

‘On the contrary, it is not the NSL that runs and controls football in our country and that Safa is subordinate to the NSL. This must be made absolutely clear.

‘We understand that the league appears to be complaining that the rights of OUTsurance are in conflict with the rights of Nedbank and Absa who are sponsors of the league. This is absurd and nonsensical, to say the least,’ concluded the Safa statement.

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Khoza, speaking to the media alongside Kaizer Motaung on Thursday, threatened to take legal action against the footballing body, while also slamming their statement as ‘insulting’.

‘For all the years I’ve been in football, I’ve never read a statement from Safa written in that manner.

‘We have been quiet in the media because our main aim is to find a solution which is in the best interests of football.

‘We are very disheartened because this reminds us of where we come from. The correspondence we see from Safa amounts to insults. We can’t understand why a simple thing which could have been dealt with indoors was thrown out to the public,’ said Khoza.

‘One just wonders what has triggered this. If we don’t deal with this matter, it is quite clear that the football industry will be injured,’ added the Kaizer Chiefs chairman.

‘We are going to seek advice from our legal team and sponsors for a way forward. The statement from Safa was sent out while we were still in a meeting with them in order to resolve the matter. That was unfortunate,’ commented Khoza.

‘We have sent letters and messages but there have been no responses.’

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Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix