Cape Town Spurs have responded to the The Premier Soccer League Dispute Resolution Chamber's ruling on Asanele Velebayi.
The PSL Dispute Resolution Chamber delivered the ruling on Monday that the attacking midfielder is officially a free agent after Spurs were relegated to the amateur ranks.
However, Spurs have now released a statement expressing their displeasure with the ruling.
Read: Twist: Chiefs' Rivals Enter Race For Velebayi & Baartman
Statement:
In a decision that has sent shockwaves through the South African football community, a National Soccer League (NSL) Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) has declared Cape Town Spurs player Asanele Velebayi a free agent following the club’s relegation.
While on the surface it appears to be a victory for player freedom, the ruling is a legal and logical catastrophe—one built on contradictory reasoning and a wilful ignorance of contractual law. More alarmingly, it has fired a fatal shot into the heart of football development, threatening to make long-term investment in young talent an unsustainable and ultimately pointless endeavour.
The premise of the case was simple: Spurs were relegated, and players like Velebayi, Liam Bern, and Luke Baartman (all of which came through the Spurs academy over a combined period of 30 years) argued this fundamentally changed their employment, entitling them to walk away from their contracts. Spurs, a club with a three-decade legacy of nurturing talent, stood firm on the legal principle of pacta sunt servanda: a contract is a contract. The club sent letters to the players insisting their contracts remained valid and binding," they continued.
According to figures verified by the club’s auditors, the input cost for a single player who has been in the academy for 10 years is a minimum of R8,000,000. This staggering sum covers coaching, facilities, travel, education, and welfare. The training compensation fees a club might receive when an academy player signs their first professional contract cover less than 5% of this monumental investment.
The entire business model, therefore, relies on the sanctity of that first professional contract. It is the club’s only mechanism to protect its investment and, hopefully, generate a future transfer fee that can be reinvested back into the next generation of youngsters.
Club CEO Alexi Efstathiou has revealed the club is not ready to give up the fight.
“We would never accuse someone with no evidence, as it would be irresponsible and unprofessional; we know what the player is valued at, he has a contract with our club, and that needs to be respected no matter the club," Efstathiou stated, as per Spurs.
"We will ascertain after consulting with the legal team the possibility of arbitration and appeal.
“In the meantime, that will depend on the Baartman case and also the yet to be heard Bern case."
