Protea left off Bafana jersey

Just two months after the furious controversy that greeted Safa's decision to allow thousands of yellow national team home jerseys to go on sale without the protea emblem, Adidas marketing director Gavin Cowley told Business Day that it was highly unlikely any Bafana jerseys — both the yellow and the green strips — would be produced with the emblem before the start of the World Cup in June.

'According to instructions'

“That was according to instructions that we received from Safa,” Cowley said.

“No jerseys are being produced with the protea emblem because we are already in the middle of the production cycle.

“We at Adidas are seen as the bad eggs in this mess and that is definitely not the case.”

Unaware

But Safa vice-president Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana contradicted Cowley, and said they were not aware that the green away strip would also not have the protea. He only found out when contacted by Business Day yesterday. “Adidas will be letting us down as a nation if they do something like that next month,” Nonkonyana said.

“We met them (Adidas) in December after the backlash that greeted the absence of the protea on the first jersey and they assured us that subsequent jerseys would have the emblem.”

Parliamentary sports committee chairman Butana Komphela said he was assured by Safa president Kirsten Nematandani in November that no more Bafana replica jerseys would be manufactured without the protea. But it seems the promises are far from being fulfilled.

Orders under old 'regime'

Tension has been brewing between the association and its technical supplier ever since revelations that the old Safa regime — led by former president Molefi Oliphant — tried to cut costs and told Adidas that the replica jersey should no longer be produced with the protea emblem.

Safa pays the Department of Sport and Recreation about R100000 in royalties a year for using the protea emblem — depending on the number of internationals the national team plays — and Oliphant decided to do away with the national symbol.

Sticking over cost of stickers

After the initial furore, Komphela was told by both parties that an alternative had been found and a permanent protea sticker would be sold at cost to the public to make up for those jerseys that were sold without the protea emblem.

But even those promises have not been met, and both Safa and Adidas are now unwilling to accept the costs of producing the stickers.

Cowley told Business Day the stickers were ready and they were waiting for Safa to pay the suppliers for the production costs.

“Safa are the rights holders and they are ones who should pay.

“Some mistakes were made in the past and I have to be clear that they were not made by Adidas. How can we be then expected to pay?

“We have got a huge event (the World Cup) coming up in a few months and this needs to be sorted out urgently.”

But Nonkonyana retorted that Cowley was mistaken for even suggesting that Safa should carry the costs of production.

“There is no question of money to be paid by Safa. None whatsoever.”

While the embarrassing bickering persists, production of the Bafana Bafana jerseys continues in Durban and Ladysmith, and the protea is still missing.

Source: Business Day