SuperSport United CEO Stan Matthews has opened up on how loan deals are structured at the club and why he has to live with Mamelodi Sundowns' prohibiting loan clause.
There has always been a mystery on who pays the salaries of players who are acquired on loan and Matthews says for the majority of the time at SSU, they foot the salary bill but in some instances when they can't afford, they ask the parent club to meet them halfway.
"When you do club to club, in the majority of cases, you have to take over the player's salary. The club that's taking him, we pay the player's salary when they come to our club," Matthews said on Marawa Sports Worldwide.
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"Sometimes we can't afford all of the salary, so we'll say, 'Okay, can you help us, can you pay the signing on fee, we'll pay the salary? Can you pay half the salary?' It depends, each situation is different.
"And depending on where the player is coming from, which club he's coming from and what their demands are," he said.
SuperSport signed three players on loan from Sundowns at the beginning of the season, goalkeeper Ricardo Goss, Grant Margeman and Thabang Sibanyoni.
However, Sundowns have inserted a loan clause which bars those three players from playing against their parent club and Matthews admitted that although the clause gives the Brazilians a "competitive advantage", he has no choice but to live with it, if it means signing a valuable player.
"We pay them what we can afford to pay them and if Sundowns gives them extra money on top of that that's not our business but like in England when a player of yours is contracted to a parent club and loaned out to another club, if you look in the UK (United Kingdom) those players are not allowed to play against their parent club," he explained.
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"And Sundowns have adopted that clause in the majority of the contracts that they sign and I've got to make a decision. Do I take the player knowing that for two games, let's say Goss, I'm losing Ronwen (Williams), I needed a valuable goalkeeper, the goalkeeper market is dry, what do I do?
"So I take Goss on a two-season loan knowing that for two games this year and two games next year he's not gonna be able to play against Sundowns but I'm banking on the other 28 games for him to add value," he said.
"Yes, it's not ideal for me and for sure it gives Sundowns a competitive advantage because they are playing against me with three of my regulars not playing.
"Whereas when I'm playing against Chiefs, Pirates and everyone else I'm playing with my full strength team," he added.
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