Orlando Pirates is one an icon of South African, and I dare say, African soccer being a past winner of the CAF African Club Champions Cup. I would venture to estimate the club to be valued in the hundreds of millions and definitely supported by millions of people.
My question is who did Irvin “The Iron Duke” Khoza buy the club from in the first place. Up until the Iron Duke’s investigation for non-payment of tax everyone had assumed that Pirates was a community club that was essentially owned by the members. I was shocked when the media reported that the South African Revenue Services was investigating, among many business entities owned by the Iron Duke, a company called Orlando Pirates FC (Pty) Ltd – a company which he is the sole owner.
It is then I first realized that Orlando Pirates was not, as many ordinary people thought, a community owned team after all. This great club that was originally formed in 1937 and had been community owned up until it was somehow registered as a property of Irvin Khoza.
I did a bit of research to see if the club was ever legally bought by Khoza but there is no indication that it was ever bought in the conventional sense of the word. When I read about the history of the club on its official website there is no mention of how Khoza came to actually own the club. What it does say is that the club was in turmoil when Khoza was persuaded to come back and sort it out in 1991.
This seems to infer that he had been a senior official before but had left for some reason or other. Anyway his coming back makes for interesting reading. Apparently when the people running the club at the time asked him to come back, he agreed to do so on condition that he had ‘full control’. It seems this is how the Iron Duke took ownership.
The community never got any financial compensation for the club so if there was money paid for the club who did? If no money was paid it has to be one of the biggest coups in South African soccer. Today Pirates is an institution worth hundreds of millions of rands and it seems the Iron Duke didn’t pay a cent for his equity.
I stand to be corrected. It’s true that since he ‘took over’ the club he did invest a lot of money into the club to ultimately make it attractive to sponsors which it has done successfully. Was there a trade off?
Did the community simply look aside when they discovered that Khoza had registered Pirates in his own name because he had brought back prestige to the club when they finally won the league in 1994 and the African Champions Cup in 1995? If my theory is true then I guess that’s why they call Irvin Khoza “The Iron Duke”. Enough respect.
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June 3, 2009 at 1:44 pm
LOL, Khoza is a crook, does anyone know what happened to the real Orlando Pirates? it just dissapeared…
June 3, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I agree with Calvin entirely. He is after all the Iron Duke.
June 4, 2009 at 9:30 am
As MC Hammer would say, “can’t touch this”…I’ve heard about this before, but it always dies a natural death.
June 16, 2009 at 10:19 am
I would presume that OP is registered as a non-profit club and as a Pvt. Ltd. company. Meaning that the club’s history, spot in PSL belongs to the non-profit part of the org., while the commercial assets of the club belong to Khoza. So Khoza, could not technically sell OP, only their assets. Meaning the new owner of OP, would not have a spot in the PSL, just the OP kits in his hands
It is very common for clubs around the world to have such dual registration.
June 16, 2009 at 10:38 am
Observer – this is an interesting angle which I was not aware existed, do you mind elaborating on what informs such an approach?
June 16, 2009 at 11:28 am
I also wasn’t aware of the dual registration that Observer informs us about but, I must say, I would not be surprised if this was the case at Pirates. However, I will not be the one that digs out the real situation at OP – I draw the line here. Hopefully some other journalists can take on this mission.
June 16, 2009 at 11:30 am
Hehehe, Lennox you’re chickening out…but I understand, you’re playing with fire.
June 17, 2009 at 6:41 am
Basically, it is like when a company starts a new venture – the new venture will be registered as separate Pvt. Ltd. Company. So if that venture fails, it can file for bankruptcy and not endanger the parent company with liabilities.
So in OP case – the club is PROBABLY (I dont know the facts) registered with the PSL, SA football authorities and Govt. as a Non-Profit Club. Mr. Khoza then probably established a Pvt. Ltd. Company which handels the commercial side of the club. If the commercial side fails, then the club still survives as it is the Pvt. Ltd. Company that will go into bankruptcy.
The non-profit side of OP probably is made up of club Members, while the Pvt. Ltd might be solely registered under Khoza’s name – so if Khoza were to sell the team he would need to get the club Members on board or the buyer would only have access to the commercial rights of the clubs and not the football side.
Anyway, I am not in the know about OP. This is all speculation, but most clubs around the world operate like this.
July 4, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I would also like to know how he much he paid for the club.
September 1, 2010 at 9:22 am
In 2004 and in one of SABC radio stations, Mr Khoza was being interviewed by the well known TV soccer announcer Joe Hudla and a KZN radio announcer Alex Mthiyane in a Sartuday talk show that was called “Phumela e shashalazini”.
On that show the Iron Duke informed the public that during the past years he has tried to buy off Orlando Pirates but his attempts were grossly prevented by the majority of club members and that he was told explicitely that the team won’t be registered as a private company. This is what he said.
July 27, 2011 at 2:16 am
ilove op i wish it could be the private companey as ather clubs then it will be more profesional