The fall of Shauwn Mkhize's Royal AM is another damning indictment of the PSL's highest bidder franchise license system

In certain quarters the downfall of Royal AM started in 2019 on the very day Shauwn Mkhize and her son Andile Mpisane, then aged only 18 years old, were allowed to buy Real Kings FC's of the National First Division. They immediately installed themselves as President and Junior Chairman and set about finding a way for their newly named Royal AM club to get into the PSL where the big money is.

After two years of failed promotion attempts, that included an embarrassing trip to CAS (Sports Arbitration Court), they lucked out when one of South Africa's most venerated clubs Bloemfontein Celtic ran into financial difficulties and were forced to sell their biggest asset, their Premier Soccer League club license.

In the English Premier League, and most elite level leagues around the world, any budding club owner is required to pass a form of The Owners' and Directors' Test which is designed to weed out unsuitable people to own football clubs, such as people convicted of crimes or are overstating their wealth and cashflow.

Here in South Africa, there are no such protections for club owners or licensees. Instead, whoever bids the highest gets the right to own a club and its license and pretty much do what they want from there.

In August 2021, with their PSL status bought and paid for all that was left was for the businesswoman, socialite and allegedly twice-convicted fraudster together with her son and 'youngest chairperson in PSL history' to run their football club as they saw fit. No oversight, no guardrails, no governance, just MaMkhize and AM10 sitting on their thrones and gazing about their kingdom of football.

It did not take long for it to start going wrong.