Africa-Press – Eswatini. Only team bosses and a handful of selected officials will be allowed free entry into any PLE matches.
PLE denotes Premier League of Eswatini. The latest position by the organisation is meant to boost the teams’ coffers, than having a stadium filled with 2 000 free entries. “Teams are losing so much due to free entrants in games. Even the accreditation costs the clubs money, which is why we’ve reached the decision to do generic accreditations that will cover all our competitions as they return this season. These generic accreditation not only applies to the local media but the PLE teams , with each having to get for 30 players and 20 officials,” PLE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Makhanya revealed during the MoMo Cup 2023 play-offs draw, at Sigwaca House on Tuesday afternoon.
He explained that just like the media had been limited, the same would apply on everyone who was their stakeholder. “Only the team directors or owners, head coach, PRO and manager get free entry in any match. Players and other officials get to use their accreditation to watch their clubs only, otherwise they pay for other matches,” he clarified.
As for the media, he said should there be a need for extra accreditation; it should be applied for timely with the PLE, just like any official would be expected to do for a complimentary ticket. Makhanya said this was mainly done to boost the clubs’ coffers. It came out recently in the PLE Annual General Meeting (AGM) that they planned to distribute all gate collections and other revenue from the PnP partnership for beverages with their members monthly.
The teams have also endorsed the accreditation format but it remains to be seen if they can last the season without immediate receipt of the gate collections. It was also acknowledged by the PLE that the media was also now more into social media reporting, which meant extra personnel in stadiums. He said they were going to consider this but with each media house as not all would have a social media reporter in their matches.
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