Robert Gumede, and his partner, Ivor Ichikowitz, insist that negotiations with the Golden Lions Rugby Union over their planned investment broke down this week due to resistance against change at the GLRU. Sport24 reports.
"Ichikowitz said on Saturday that the transformation for which they had strived had less to do with race and more with the way in which the GLRU, as a business, was being run.
"Our walking away from this deal is not a racial issue, said Ichikowitz. "It is simply that the Lions is not being run like a company; it is being run like an amateur union.
"Our goal was to change the way the business leg of the Lions was run with specific emphasis on marketing and management, or creating a brand all South Africans can identify with."
"Prior to the arrival of the billionaire investors, the Lions had already started restructuring by firing some of their key decision makers.
"First, in perhaps one of the most embarrassing moments in the union's 120-year history, coach Eugene Eloff was sacked in May 2009, a week before the Lions hosted the British and Irish Lions. Then, the following month, long serving president Jannie Boshoff was asked to step down.
"Like Eloff, who later spoke out about the union's poor administration, Gumede and Ichikowitz have voiced their disappointment. Their concerns surfaced in a document signed by Gumede and Ichikowitz that was leaked to the media this week."
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