Moroka Swallows aim to remodel club to address financial woes

Swallows faced their lowest point since the club's revival under its new leadership last week, when a strike by players demanding early payment of their December salaries, led to the cancellation of two DStv Premiership fixtures. 

READ: Moroka Swallows charge players over cancelled PSL fixtures

Prior to this, the club already had challenges of late payments of salaries for previous months, and Mogashoa says not even talk of salary caps can help them, but they will be looking at downscaling their operations.

"The solution is simple: We need to remodel the club, it needs to be small, we need to have youth in the club, and we must forget about the experienced senior players, because they cost more," Mogashoa told SABC Sport.

"That's the only way, and that's when the grant can be enough. Salary caps? Yes, they would help because then you'd at least have a guide – you'd have a player coming in from another club that the coach wants and costs a lot of money, so you have to sacrifice to accommodate that player.

"So, if there are salary caps, at least you know that you don't have to exceed the cap, but I don't think salary caps would work [for all teams]."

As an example, Mogashoa points at a club like Stellenbosch FC that produces among the best youth talent to compete in the top flight before selling them off to the big three. 

He says this is the new route the Dube Birds will look to follow, starting from the current transfer window, to also try and drain their huge salary bill.

"The window is open now so we need to look at different options because, remember, we still have to play the remainder of the season," he added.

"So we need to look at the model going forward because we can't be cancelling games – the League will expel us, so we need to make sure we go in [to the second half of the season] with a stable squad that will then take the team forward.

"The only way is to go the Stellenbosch FC and SuperSport United route, and just focus on youngsters, and leave the senior players. That's the best thing for us to do now – change the strategy and remodel the club to focus on youngsters.

"Stellenbosch are doing it very well, they even got a trophy with youngsters, and it shows we must not have the best players, but the best technical team, who can improve players, which you'll then be able to sell, and then you can survive that way."

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