Tony Ehrenreich wants disciplinary action against Mayco member, Grant Pascoe, for the mishandling of the Liverpool fixture.
|||Cape Town – ANC leader in the city council Tony Ehrenreich wants disciplinary action against amayoral committee member for tourism, events and marketing Grant Pascoe for his handling of the Liverpool Football Club saga.
Liverpool were to play local club Ajax Cape Town at Cape Town Stadium on May 21, but things fell apart when the Premier Soccer League banned Ajax from playing the match.
“Our concern is the city committed millions in public funds to the event. The benefit to the city was supposed to be exposure and attraction of tourism and so on. To do this, you need to put proper arrangements in place. He (Pascoe) has an executive director and staff in his department and should have checked all developments.
“There has been dereliction of duty on his part because Cape Town’s reputation is being damaged,” Ehrenreich said.
The Liverpool visit was discussed at a council meeting in April when the ANC had advised Pascoe to negotiate with the PSL and SA Football Association, he said.
“But his arrogance is part of inability to lead a portfolio so important,” Ehrenreich said.
He alleged Pascoe was being reckless and was unsuitable for the job.
“He is unsuitable for high office, but this happens during the DA’s deployment of people not fit for the job,” he said.
“It is because he is key to the DA in Mitchells Plain. But because of his incompetence it is the people of Mitchells Plain who will now suffer. We’ll table a formal request at the next council sitting and call on the mayor to have disciplinary action instituted,” Ehrenreich said.
Pascoe countered that the city had not lost any money. “He (Ehrenreich) is entitled to his opinion. The executive director did nothing outside his authority. We got permission from the council. I don’t know how we are incompetent. We are there to grow tourism and create jobs. I think it is rather unfortunate some people want to jump on the bandwagon.”
Pascoe said he would welcome a disciplinary hearing, as it would show just how wrong Ehrenreich was.
”A hearing is fine. It’s part of holding us accountable.”
Pascoe said the idea of the Liverpool match started after Manchester United played in Cape Town in July. The exposure Cape Town received and the television coverage of the match spurred the city to approach several European clubs to visit in their off season.
Talks were held with Liverpool in February when city officials and Manchester United representatives met to for a post match analysis of the July match, said Pascoe.
“They (Liverpool) were keen to come out and two months later they agreed to a contract,” he said and added that the city lawyers had assured him everything in the contract was above board. It included a proviso that the clubs obtain the required permission from their respective football federations, and a no-liability clause which meant the city would not have been liable for injury of any of the players, he said. – Cape Times
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