Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 127, February 2020 | Page 22

SPORT MAN
Says
By
Manfred Seidler
The Transfer Market
We very often hear of one athlete “jumping ship” from one club to another, or a club enticing an athlete to jump ship.
That is often followed by club managers or committees complaining that they have invested time, money and coaching
in an athlete, and the athlete has shown no loyalty or thanks by simply leaving. In turn, some athletes complain that the
clubs are standing in their way of better opportunities, or a full-time career in the sport. This is a tricky situation, mainly
because there really are no guidelines, never mind concrete rules, for all parties involved to navigate these issues.
SA’s big ultra-marathons are dominated by the so-
called pro clubs that are unique to this country
Becoming More Professional
In the 80’s and 90’s, road running was dominated
by athletes who were mostly gainfully employed
full-time outside of running. For example, RAC had
some incredible athletes, including Bruce Fordyce,
22
Hoseah Tjale, Bob de la Motte and Mark Page,
amongst others, and most had full-time jobs that they
needed to factor into their training schedules. On the
other hand, the mines with running clubs employed
talented runners to work in their company structures,
but rarely to do actual mining or hard labour, so that
they could focus on their running, and the same could
be said for the armed services and police services.
Nevertheless, none of our athletes were in the true
sense professional runners.
Fast forward to the mid 90’s and beyond, and
the mines were no longer in a position to employ
athletes, nor were the police and armed services. It
was simply not economically sustainable. Legends
Nick Bester and the late Zithulele Sinqe did try for
a number of years to resurrect that model through
their partnership with Harmony Gold Mines, but when
that deal collapsed, Nick turned to Nedbank. Quite
successfully, too. Without Nick’s efforts, and that of
ISSUE 127 FEBRUARY 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Nedbank, road running in South Africa would be in a
very dark place now.
The introduction of Nedbank saw corporate SA
becoming involved in road running and contracting
athletes to run for their teams. We had Liberty/Nike,
Rentmeester, Mr Price, and later Bonitas, amongst
others. In essence, these teams developed into
corporate clubs. Some club members were paid a
fee to race for the club, while others were merely club
members. The current situation has Nedbank, Boxer,
Murray & Roberts, Entsika, Maxed Elite and Massmart
as the big clubs.
And before anyone says that these elite clubs are only
out to “steal” the best athletes from other clubs, be
it from community clubs or other elite clubs, let’s be
very clear, they all have a strong development system
in place. In fact, Massmart was formed specifically to
develop female ultra-running talent, and has done an
T
he South African club system is unique in
the world. For starters, no other country has
an equivalent of what we call “elite clubs,”
like Nedbank, Murray & Roberts, Boxer, Entsika,
Massmart, Maxed Elite or Arthur Ford. This club
system is a legacy of the isolation years, when South
Africa was excluded from international sport due to
the country’s political policies, and is both the reason
why road running was incredibly strong in the 80’s
and 90’s on the front end, and also the reason why
we are now facing some difficult questions. That’s
because this club system was, in real terms, an
amateur system, which in today’s world is simply not
sustainable at the front end of the sport.