The South African economy may be struggling but football remains big business in the country with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) expanding its reach outside of the continent.
The increased pulling power of the league has been more evident over the last 18 months with many high-profile acquisitions by the country’s leading clubs.
The most intriguing of these was the capture by SuperSport United of South African international midfielder Dean Furman, who has grabbed the chance to become part of an ambitious project at the Pretoria club.
At the age of 27, Furman is a player reaching his prime, but instead of pushing to grow his reputation in Europe, he has instead opted for a more lucrative contract in South Africa.
Furman is one of a number of players from outside of Africa that have pledged their future to the South African domestic game. What started as a trickle 18 months ago has turned into something of a rush, at two clubs at least.
The New Zealand international trio of Jeremy Brockie and Michael Boxall (both SuperSport), as well as Kris Bright (Wits) have arrived. As has Australian Isaka Cernak at SuperSport, Portuguese junior international, Jucie Lupeta, and most recently Englishman James Keene, both of whom play at Wits.
And then there is the return to the PSL of experienced defender Bongani Khumalo, to SuperSport for the first half of the season and, since January, Wits. His failure to get a work permit in England was a deciding factor, though there were other offers elsewhere in Europe.
The new arrivals have had varying degrees of success. Cernak and Bright have especially struggled to adapt to the local game, but the rest have added value to their teams.
Furman remains the most high-profile of the new arrivals though, having come through the junior ranks at English giants Chelsea, made his professional debut for top Scottish club Glasgow Rangers and captained his country at an African Nations Cup finals.
Born in Cape Town, his early years were spent in the plush surroundings of Camps Bay before his parents immigrated to England when he was five. Four years later, he was scouted by Chelsea playing for his local club and joined their academy.
His next move involved a future Liverpool manager and a Scottish great.
“I was coming to the end of my apprenticeship at Chelsea and was unsure whether I would be kept on,” says Furman. “Throughout my time at Chelsea, the youth coaches had been really supportive of me. One of them, Brendan Rodgers, had a link at Celtic, which was [former Scotland star] Tommy Burns, and so I spent a week training there.”
“After that I had a week at Glasgow Rangers as well. I really enjoyed both experiences and would have been happy to sign for either club. But Rangers moved faster I guess and I committed to them.”
Furman made his senior debut for his new club in 2008, two years after joining the club, but felt his fortunes lay in England, despite being offered a new contract by the Scottish side and after a successful loan spell at fourth-tier Bradford City, joined Oldham Athletic a division above.
He immediately hit it off with coach Paul Dickov, so much so that he was handed the captaincy of the side for the 2011/12 season, just days past his 23rd birthday, making him the youngest skipper among England’s 92 league clubs for that season.
“I think Paul Dickov could see a bit of himself in me,” says Furman.
At the end of the first season, the captain had moved on and Dickov was looking for someone else to take the leadership role.
“It was a great honor and a great responsibility for me at a young age. But I think that is just the way I am. Whether I am wearing the captain’s armband or not I try and get the best out of my teammates. It is something that comes quite naturally to me.”
A move to Doncaster Rovers would follow, initially on loan and then permanently in 2013 as Furman sought to perform at a higher level.
He did compete in the English Championship with Rovers and did not look out of place, despite their relegation in the 2013/14 season.
He turned down the offer of a new contract at the club at the end of the last campaign and had a trial with Championship club Blackburn Rovers, where he received glowing praise from the club’s management, but who ultimately opted to sign players in other positions they felt needed greater cover.
Furman had long been linked with the South African PSL ever since he made his debut for Bafana Bafana under Gordon Igesund against Brazil in 2012. Now with options to consider on the table, the best of these were from SuperSport United, a club with substantial financial backing and ambition.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, purely based on having to move to another country and the affect that would have on my girlfriend and our families,” he says.
“But [SuperSport CEO] Stan Matthews came over and outlined his vision for the club. I spoke to a lot of people about the team and the PSL and ultimately we decided to experience something new.”
Furman says he and his girlfriend have settled in well and believes there are a number of factors why the PSL is becoming a more attractive league for players from outside the continent.
“The legacy from the [2010] World Cup has really put the spotlight on South African football. And there is some real talent over here with exciting players, so it is great to watch and be involved in. The facilities are world-class too.”
Also, there is no doubt that tougher financial conditions among European clubs means more players will be looking for opportunities outside of the continent.
“There are a lot of really good players scratching around looking for a club. Financially, teams have tightened up so good players have been released to cut wage bills and it is becoming more difficult therefore to win a good contract at a good club because there is so much competition.”
It is for that reason that Furman, while just reaching his prime as a player, is already thinking about life after retirement.
“I have got a couple of properties in the UK and am also doing my dissertation for a sports science degree. Your career ends very early in life and so you need to think about the next 50 years.”
The rude financial health of the PSL should make those 50 years easier for Furman.

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It was a caucus about transformation and we were going to appoint a committee, almost like a task-team, to deal with certain issues. I was the only woman at the meeting and when it came to electing the members, the men started appointing each other. Eventually, one of them realized that they did not have any female members, so they said to me, ‘Come and sit on the panel so we can have a woman.’ I said no.’”
Despite repeated requests from her colleagues, Ntambi Ravele declined adamantly. She made it clear that she would stick to her decision.
“I wasn’t going to be part of something just because I was a woman. Especially because I had experience on my side,” she says.
At the time of the convention, Ravele had served as national co-ordinator for Women and Sport South Africa, represented the country at the International Olympic Committee, chaired the Supreme Council for Sport in South Africa’s zone VI Women and Sport Committee, and won the president’s Sport Administrator of the Year title. She had credentials many people in the room could only dream of and she was not going to allow them to be undermined by a politically-correct, gender-based appointment.
“When those types of things happen, you get to a point where you can’t even feel offended. You can only sit back and laugh.”
Ravele had the last laugh as the team that was set up turned out to be nothing more than a talking shop.
“Nothing ever happened after that,” she says.
But much has happened for Ravele. She has served as president of Netball South Africa in the mid-2000s, during which she obtained a television rights deal with the public broadcaster, the SABC, and corporate sponsorship worth R10 million ($913,000). In April 2013, she got into the boxing ring with BSA. It is her most challenging role yet, but she has already packed a serious punch.
When Ravele was appointed, she identified the most pressing issue in boxing to be that of compliance. Mismanagement, be it from administrators or promoters, resulted in embarrassment. Veteran super middleweight boxer Dingaan ‘The Rose of Soweto’ Thobela had his license revoked because he was over the age limit and did not fight actively for the stipulated period. And Noni Tenge, South Africa’s first female world champion, was stripped of her IBF title for not competing often enough.
“We really needed to clean up the industry. We had to change our image by looking at licenses and payments. We had situations where licenses were not issued properly, others where fighters were not paid within a certain time and fights were being canceled.”
To address these issues, Ravele had to reach a consensus with boxing promoters, whom she met at the National Sports Indaba early in her tenure. She extracted commitments from them that would pay greater attention to playing by the rules.
“We put systems in place and now we have to make sure we work within these systems. Money must be paid within a certain time frame and the promoters must have registered companies that operate properly. For example, they must all have a tax clearance. We will be making sure all these things are abided by,” says Ravele.
Her first step towards reviving South African boxing was to find a common ground regarding television rights for fights. Broadcast deals are one of the largest revenue streams for sports, who controls them has major implications for how the game is run.
During Ngconde Balfour’s tenure, Ravele’s predecessor, BSA had no control over which matches were televised on the public broadcaster and which were sold to pay television.
When boxing promoters Golden Gloves reached an exclusive deal with satellite service SuperSport to broadcast its fights, BSA could do nothing. Similarly, BSA was powerless when the SABC decided it would no longer televise matches.
At the recent Boxing Indaba, all promoters agreed that BSA could negotiate dates with broadcasters for fights. While it does not solve the problem it is a step in the right direction.
Now, BSA will hold discussions with SABC, SuperSport and e.tv to decide which one will commit to showing live matches. Ravele will also discuss SuperSport’s Golden Gloves deal to see if they are willing to adjust the terms when the contact comes up for renewal. Promoters will then bid to have their fights televised on the dates BSA agrees on. She has also guaranteed smaller promoters, who develop boxing by giving unknown fighters a chance, that they will get their fights on air for a minimum fee.
In this way, Ravele hopes that boxing can reach the masses rather than only be accessible to the elite.
“We want to move away from the monopolies and make sure that we have television channels that give us coverage at prime time, so that we can promote the sport,” says Ravele.
Her reasons for wanting more coverage are two-fold. On the one hand, it will be financially beneficial to BSA and everyone involved in the sport, and on the other, her goal is to restore boxing to the prominence it once enjoyed, in terms of results and among its fans.
“We used to have a lot of world champions and we need to get back to that level. At the moment, we are not there. If you think back to the days when Baby Jake Matlala was in his prime, everybody knew who he was.”
Because of the relative anonymity of IBO super middleweight champions Thomas ‘Tommy Gun’ Oosthuizen and junior lightweight title-holder Kaizer Mabuza, South Africans may see boxing as a sport in decline. That is not the case, of the 122 titles that South African male boxers have won, 32 were earned in the last five years.
What is concerning is that many of these titles are with the smaller federations, Ravele vows to change that. She also hopes that female fighters, who are known almost exclusively as Tenge, can start making headlines. Ravele was part of the committee that paved the way for women to participate in boxing in South Africa. Today, she wants to be the driving force behind making champions of the fairer sex.
“South Africa has not been involved in women’s boxing for that long and because it’s quite new, we need to support female boxers and the set-up they work in. At the moment, there are very few women promoters and trainers and we have to create a system where more of them can come through. I’d like to see more women trainers, especially because they understand the challenges facing women in the sport and they allow women to prepare in way that is comfortable for them,” she says.
But what about the challenges Ravele will face as she aims to lift BSA off the ropes and into the center of the boxing ring?
“I have been in the industry for a long time and the only thing I want is to do my job to the best of my ability.”
While she continues fighting to put boxing back on track, after she ends her tenure with the pugilists, she will concentrate on her business and work as a consultant for various sports federations.
“I think I will enjoy that kind of work because people respect me for who I am. In the early days during meetings, some of the men may have expected me to make tea during the breaks or something like that. I never did that and I never will.”

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