"I know of no country that has a professional club in its league that is named after a club in another country," remarked a grey-bearded colleague as he walked past my desk at a snail's pace.
This observation, by the man who may or may not come from the dangerous township of KwaMashu, where gunfire pops like fireworks during Dewali in neighbouring Newlands, was his reaction to the news that came from the Cape.
The tidings from Table Mountain was that Cape Town Stars have bought the 51% stake which Ajax Amsterdam held in Ajax Cape Town.
Borrowing a name from top European teams is the speciality of ambitious owners who operate at local football level. Townships across the length and breadth of our beloved SA are teeming with teams bearing such names as Benfica and Sporting.
At the rate professional teams are being bought and sold and uprooted from one province to the other, losing their identity in the process, one season we will have a Top 8 of new teams.
Are they buying because they are making an investment in the sport and that particular community or just going for a quick buck? What is happening now with the Premier Soccer League is a money-making scheme.
People are not investing in a club. They buy a brand, hold it for a season or two and before you can get your head around the new name, sell it to the next guy with the big bucks.
If you bought for say R7, the price would have doubled by the time you sell it.
This practice does nothing for growing those teams. Rather, it destroys those brands, flushing them down the drain of oblivion.
When SuperSport bought Pretoria City in 1994, it was because M-Net wanted to build their brand. Since it was founded 26 years ago, the club maintained its roots in Pretoria. Together with Mamelodi Sundowns they've threatened to convert the PSL acronym to Pretoria Soccer League. What with the duo's truckload of trophies.
There should be a condition in the National Soccer League statutes governing the selling of clubs. You buy. You don't change the name. You change the status.
It is refreshing to hear from the new owner of AmaZulu, Sandile Zungu, that his entry into football is not motivated by malevolent intentions.
He is the president of that organisation called BBK, I mean BBC. Not the British Broadcasting Corporation. But the Black Business Council. His business interests are well known.
The death of Bidvest Wits, a 99-year-old institution that folded, has opened the door for AmaZulu to become the oldest club in the country.
His utterances at the unveiling of his takeover suggest that Zungu is entering the soccer space to be in it for the long haul.
"AmaZulu have got to be the No 1 team in this country come the year of our centenary in 2032," Zungu pronounced at the press conference in Durban on Friday.
"If we don't win the league in the next four years, we would have failed."
Lofty ambitions for AmaZulu. For far too long their situation has been that of suffocating in the smell of relegation.
Here's hoping that the injection of Zungu's resources will herald a new chapter for a club that was the home of many supporters who have migrated to others because of Usuthu's overwhelming underperformance and continuous dwindling fortunes over the years.
This news has put a never-ending smile on the face of my uncle Langa, who will give an arm and a leg to start inhaling fresh air associated with the top end of the table. Take your seat Zungu, Sengwayo, Gwabini and bring about a disruption that will hopefully not only awaken but also breathe new life to a giant which has been in a seemingly never-ending snooze mode.
Twitter: @bbkunplugged99
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