The exporting of South African players to Europe's top leagues directly from the Premier Soccer League has dried up significantly over the last few years. You'd have to go back to Percy Tau's transfer from Mamelodi Sundowns to Brighton and Hove Albion in 2018 for the last time a South African made a significant move to one of Europe's top leagues. A number of factors like the pricing of players, the prevalence of other African markets and the ability of South African clubs to remunerate players adequately in comparison to their European counterparts can be attributed to this. However, one of the major factors which could continue to hamper young players' chances of moving abroad is the PSL's partnership – or the lack thereof – with global scouting platform, Wyscout.
What The Siya Crew Has Been Told…
Up until the 2022/23 season, the Premier Soccer League is understood to have had a partnership with the global scouting network. According to two separate sources, users of Wyscout worldwide were able to access video footage from all PSL games, making it possible for clubs around the world to track players from the DStv Premiership. The platform bridged the gap between the local league and those abroad, acting like a store window for some of the best youngsters to showcase their talent in hopes of getting the opportunity to further their careers abroad.
However, according to the sources, footage from the PSL has not been attainable on the Wyscout platform from the start of the 2023/24 campaign, meaning that some of the country's top young performers like Relebohile Mofokeng, Devin Titus, Jayden Adams, Ashley Cupido and Shandre Campbell, all of whom have the potential to ply their trade abroad, would have no recent footage of their games to present to international clubs if they were to request such.
The Siya crew understands that there was an official approach made from the Italian company to the PSL to make footage of their matches available on their platform; however, there has been no official response from the PSL. Also, attempts made to contact the people at Wyscout proved futile at the time of going to print.
What Are The Facts?
Wyscout, by their own words, is the world's biggest library of football video and data. Clubs from all over the world utilize the platform to carry out their scouting and recruitment of players, and it has proven to be a useful tool in reducing time and space between countries that are thousands of kilometres apart. The reach of the platform is far and wide and to date, has over 600 competitions in their database.
Wyscout is currently being used by some of the biggest names in club football in the world, such as Barcelona, Liverpool and Bayern Munich – but for the season, which is about to reach its end, that list did not include South Africa's topflight!
Incredibly, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos made use of the technology when he first took over the job and had to fine-tune his pool of players. The Belgian coach used Wyscout to find players like Sphephelo Sithole and Thibang Phete, who were lesser known in South Africa, but were plying their trade in some of Europe's competitive leagues and have since gone on to represent Bafana Bafana a number of times, with Sithole even forming part of the 23-man squad who led the nation to a third-place finish at the Africa Cup of Nations in January this year.
As reported by the Siya crew, all is not lost with regards to the prospect of local players being scouted. At present, the PSL's legal department are mulling over a possible contract with Hudl, the founders of Wyscout, which could see the South African topflight reinstated amongst some of the world's top competitions in terms of availability of footage. Though this would likely be at the start of the 2024/25 season, which could be a massive boost for the country's best young players.
Despite having a number of top performers at the recently held Africa Cup of Nations, none of Bafana Bafana's players managed to land major moves abroad. This is partly because additional footage of their games were non-existent, meaning that big European teams could not make decisions solely off a tournament.
The likes of Ronwen Williams, Teboho Mokoena, Khuliso Mudau, Adams and Percy Tau all shone brightly for Bafana Bafana, with all these matches available on the platform. Siya sources in the know informed the crew that Orlando Pirates youngster Relebohile Mofokeng is another who has felt the effects of a lack of readily available footage on the worldwide platform.
The 19-year-old jetted out of the country in December to undergo an assessment with Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers. At the time of his return, very little was known about how he fared at the club, or whether an official offer was made to Pirates for the player's services. The Siya crew has it on good authority, that although he fared relatively well, Wolves are believed to have told Mofokeng's camp the areas in which he needs to develop, and that they would track his progress, which could see him return to the Premiership side.
But without adequate footage, Wolves would not have been able to see the eight-goal contributions – four goals and four assists – that he has been involved in since his return from the United Kingdom. Furthermore, as reported by the Siya crew, interest in the youngster continues to mount as teams from Azerbaijan and the United States of America's MLS are believed to be tracking him, though their interest could be faced with the challenge of insufficient footage of the talented star.
The Story Behind The Scenes…
Legal expert lays into PSL
According to renowned sports lawyer and agent, Evert De Bruyn, the PSL are cutting off their own noses to spite their face by not using the Wyscout platform to its advantage.
"The PSL and WyScout have not been able to reach an agreement. And so, for the better part of 24 months, the PSL footage and data has been inaccessible to the entire global football community – and so too the information relating to the players that participate in it. The performances of (the few) South African players playing abroad, as well as the recent performance of Bafana Bafana at Afcon, have drawn the attention to our local league. However, any interest that foreign clubs and analysts may have in our local league or players quickly disappears when they realize that they are unable to watch or obtain any statistical data from WyScout. These clubs and analysts then, unsurprisingly, turn their attention to other countries and leagues because they can access the footage and data on WyScout of several hundred other leagues from various different countries.
"In my view, the decision of the PSL evidences a fundamental lack of vision and forward-thinking, and bears out the failure to understand that WyScout, and similar services, has in the past (and will hopefully in future) serve as a very important marketing tool for all South African clubs and players who are becoming more reliant on transfers to sustain their revenue than ever before. The value that such services add for the PSL as a league from a commercial point of view, and by association its clubs and players, is incomparable with the possible revenue that the PSL could get for selling its footage.
"In fact, this decision also continues to directly prevent its own clubs from having access to a worldwide marketplace, inflicting untold damage by depriving its clubs from the ability to generate much-needed revenue from player transfers. The decision also indicates a significant misunderstanding of where South African football is at this point in time. It has been decades since South African footballers were regularly exported abroad, and our national team has failed to make any impression on a continental or international stage on a regular basis. The fact that the PSL expects payment for its footage evidences a massively overinflated sense of itself and the value of its product.
"No agreement between the PSL and WyScout appears to be in sight. And so South African clubs, and players, will remain in the football data and analytics wilderness. All for a few cents. In my opinion, the PSL should deliver the footage to WyScout on a silver platter. In doing so, it will allow clubs and scouts from all across the globe to see what our national league and players have to offer, and hopefully, increasing the ability of our clubs to transfer players abroad, generating much-needed revenue, whilst also providing our players with the possibility of obtaining opportunities abroad. And perhaps the PSL can show us all that it is a truly forward-thinking organization, and that it is befitting of the status as the best league in Africa."
Watch This Space
Wyscout without the PSL's coverage remains the leading scouting platform worldwide. The PSL, however, is handicapped without the partnership with Wyscout as its players' already limited chances of being scouted abroad are decreased even further. This means that there are less eyes on the local competition from outside South African borders and thus less players being moved abroad by DStv Premiership clubs. But with the League's legal heads currently scrutinizing the possible benefit of a partnership with Wyscout, we could potentially see a change of heart from the League's perspective, which would once again open doors for young players to be scouted by clubs abroad, though that remains to be seen!
