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S’Busiso Mseleku

THE Premier Soccer League will soon employ a chief operations officer and general manager of football.

The COO will take over from Professor Ronnie Schloss – who has temporarily occupied the position – and be groomed to take over from current chief executive Kjetil Siem when his contract expires in 2010.

The successful incumbent will probably take home a package of R1.2 million a year.

The general manager will replace Andrew “Druza” Dipela, whose position became vacant this week when Dipela finally parted ways with the league following sexual harassment allegations that were levelled against him by female colleagues in November.

He subsequently went on voluntary leave to allow the investigation to continue unhindered but this week he resigned and the league withdrew all the charges.

City Press has learnt that the two parties eventually agreed on a settlement fee of R1 million.

“Yes, I can say that the figure is around that amount,” said Siem.

“You must remember that he has been on paid leave for six months and if you add another six months, the figure comes to around that.”

Siem and Schloss have interviewed six candidates for the position of chief financial officer.

“I would like to fill this position as well as that of the general manager of football,” said Siem.

He said the person they were looking for as a chief operations officer would have to come from a football background.

“The PSL has grown commercially this past year. We need somebody who will contribute to that growth,” said Siem.

PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza said some of the specifications the league executive had given to Siem were that the incumbent must be an African, know the ins and outs of the interaction between football’s leagues and television as well as legal and financial qualifications.

Khoza also said that Dan Leboa, who had been brought in to fill in for Dipela, would be retained as he was already working on next season’s fixtures.

“He has been very helpful to the league.

“He was brought in on a month-to-month contract but we have extended it for a further six months as he is now helping us draft fixtures for next year,” said Khoza.

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