Yormark praises Irvin Khoza for building PSL’s commercial strength

Roc Nation Sports International president Michael Yormark has credited PSL chairman Irvin Khoza and the league’s executive committee with establishing the South African top flight as a commercially strong competition.

Yormark was speaking at a media roundtable in Cape Town on Tuesday, where the discussion included the different routes African players take when moving to clubs in Europe.

In many other parts of the continent, players often move directly from West Africa to Europe or Major League Soccer. Yormark used Yan Diomande as an example of that pathway.

The 19-year-old was identified as a promising player in Ivory Coast before continuing his development in the United States. He later joined CD Leganes, a move which helped lead to his breakthrough at RB Leipzig.

Diomande now plays for Real Madrid after completing a high-profile transfer earlier this year.

Yormark said the South African system was different because the Premier Soccer League had developed into a strong commercial product over an extended period under Khoza’s leadership.

“South Africa is slightly different, because the PSL is a very commercially strong league, and you have to give credit to Irvin Khoza and the whole executive for building that league over a long period of time,” Yormark said.

He added that South African players still needed to be given opportunities to reach the highest possible level, including through moves to what he described as “trampoline” leagues.

“So the South African players are slightly different. Yes, we want our players to reach the highest level possible, and that is going into Europe, and what we would say is going into a trampoline league, so going into Belgium, Austria, Scandinavia, these type of markets, so that they actively are playing, and then can jump to the next level.”

Yormark said players from South Africa could also follow a less direct route because of the status and history of the country’s leading clubs.

“Now for our South African players, we wish for the same things, but we also have to remember that there’s some big clubs in South Africa, that have a lot of pride, that they’ve built this big fan following over a number of years, and sometimes it’s not that straight line like the West African players, it can be to maybe one of those big three or big four clubs.”

His comments highlighted the contrast between a system focused on exporting emerging talent and one in which players may first establish themselves at one of South Africa’s most prominent clubs.

The PSL’s commercial development, Yormark said, has helped create that environment while also making the movement of South African players abroad a more complex process than the direct transfers often seen elsewhere in Africa.