Too good to be true…

You know the saying, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn’t.

Great example as to why teams should check that their sponsors can actually pay before signing them on.

Boland Rugby Union, a successful rugby team in South Africa has gotten into some financial trouble because it’s major sponsor, Fidentia can not pay up on it’s sponsorship agreement. This has led to the club not being able to pay some of it’s players.

Player’s were offered exuberant amounts of money to join them and thought they were getting a great deal. However, questions had been previously raised about how such a large amount of income could flow into the team.

An excerpt from Sports Agent Jason Smith, who manages players from the team reads:

“The players also need to take responsibility. As an agent, it is my job to set up the contracts and I advised against joining the union, but none of the players would turn down such a good deal. Players were getting paid up to three times their worth, which is needless to say, abnormal.”

All a sports agent can do is advise. At the end of the day, it is the player who makes the final decision. I am sure Jason spoke to his players at length about how this deal didn’t sound convincing, but nevertheless, he completed his fiduciary duty as an agent to the players. Now he is left with finding his players new clubs in such a short amount of time.

Jason also stated that:

“We won’t get paid either and we’ll take a bit of a hit. But our job is to try and find new jobs for the players.”

I commend Jason on his actions as a sports agent in this case for sticking by his clients and helping them despite no financial compensation.

Lesson learned? Advise your clients from taking such dicey contracts, and ensure the club can pay up.

– Chris Lesley