• PSL doyen professor Ronnie Schloss has described it as "a tragedy and disservice to South African soccer" if Bidvest Wits go out of business.
• There are rumours that the club could be sold to second division club Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila.
• The club is 100 years old this year and was founded as Wits University FC.

Premier Soccer League (PSL) doyen professor Ronnie Schloss has described it as "a tragedy and disservice to South African soccer" if Bidvest Wits go out of business by virtue of a widely rumoured plan to sell the club's time-honoured soccer franchise in its 100th anniversary year to GladAfrica second division club Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila.

Schloss said he was speaking from the viewpoint of his long service with the country's professional soccer body and not as a former president of the club that rose to prominence as Wits University FC from its 1920 roots - and effectively still represents to some greater or lesser degree hundreds of thousands of present and past university students.

Notwithstanding this, the widespread stories that the billionaire Bidvest Group is planning to sell the PSL franchise it acquired 15 years ago are tinged with the disbelief of a Ripley's ''Believe it or not".

"Wits are not nicknamed The Clever Boys without reason," says Schloss. "As the representatives of one of South Africa's premier universities when it bought a controlling 60 percent interest in the club, Bidvest effectively took over a wider social commitment as well.

"And I hope they remember this when they consider a sale," he added. "But I must admit I have some misgivings when so many sources are coming out with the story that a sale is already in the pipeline - even though Wits chairman, Alan Fainman, has suggested that nothing has taken place."

Schloss pointed out the PSL could implement conditions that might effectively veto a sale, while the university would not help feeling bitter about what they considered as their own from being snatched from under their nose."

"Even if Bidvest decide to sell," added Schloss, "you would have expected they would have consulted with the PSL and the university first in order to find the best course forward - before running around looking for a buyer."

Finance is said to be at the unlikely root of the problem for what has become one of the  PSL's most successful teams with 10 major titles, mostly in the past decade - even though the varied billionaire group control 300 companies with 137 employees and money should not be a major problem - unless they have had a major U-turn on their original  footballing commitment.

Roger de Sa, a long-time former coach and one-time CEO of the club, recalls Wits came out on a R6 million budget when he was in charge.

"And we managed pretty well on this relatively modest amount," he added, "with a thriving development programme producing numerous pretty good players. Wits then switched to big spending in a bid for success and I believe the current budget is more in the region of R70 million to R80 million.

"It's not surprising they've suddenly woken up to the cost," he added, "but it would certainly be sad if a club of such tradition disappeared from the PSL soccer scene."

The change in Bidvest's priorities seemed to change when the cosmopolitan group's founder, Brian Joffe, an avid soccer follower, cut his ties with the organisation he had run since 1988.

In the process, Wits have pointedly put many of their top and most expensive players, like Thulani Hlatshwayo, Deon Hotto, Haashim Domingo, Gift Motupa and Phathutshedzo Nange up for sale.

"We've heard all the stories," says Wits current, long-serving coach, Gavin Hunt, "but we really don't know what is going to materialise."

And if he doesn't know, who does?

It is also rumoured that Bidvest are one of PSL's potential new League sponsors following the decision of Absa Bank not to renew a long-term contract at the end of the present season.

However, it would be a bitter, undiplomatic irony if a new benefactor turned out to be one responsible for terminating the existence of one of the PSL's most renowned clubs at the same time.