By Kgomotso Mokoena
Former Safa CEO Raymond Hack says plans are afoot and he has approached financial backers to resurrect Wits FC.
The 99-year-old club was sold at the end of last season and Hack, who served the club for 25 years as chairman, says that he has teamed up with professor Ronnie Schloss, another Wits stalwart, to bring back the historic club whose status was sold to Tshakuma Tsha Madzivhandila towards the end of last season.
According to Hack, Schloss’s son, Jonathan, who was Wits’ manager, is also on board for this massive and ambitious project. Schloss senior is currently the PSL’s COO while Hack sits on the board of the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sports and serves in the league’s disciplinary committee and various legal subcommittees.
“Me and prof spent a combined 50 years at the club. He will be joining me in this crusade to bring back the club. We have approached funders and entities who have shown a keen interest, but I cannot divulge their names at the moment. The plan is to buy a status and rename it Wits University,” said Hack.
Hack added: “Wits was a massive club and people are interested in what we bring on the table. What makes it easy for us is that we have a good understanding with the university. The university is still continuing with the amateurs and the junior academies. I went there recently for a meeting and I saw about 30 kids in their development structures. They stay at the academy dormitories and they were all looking forward to go play, now what happens to them?”
Hack said that between the three of them they bring massive experience in local football and in running a club. “Myself and prof were taught by Jack “Big Daddy” Sello how to run a club from the back of the boot in the 1970s…” he said.
“We are personally attached to the club. You don’t wipe out 50 years like that. I started there in 1969. We will find the funders soon.”
