Maritzburg United chairman Farouk Kadodia says the high salary demands from players has led to large-scale unemployment.
The Team of Choice released eight players last week as they bid to cut their wage bill and prepare for the upcoming DStv Premiership season.
They only just about secured their top-flight survival and ultimately ended in 12th place on the league standings with just seven wins all campaign.
Other top flight clubs have also released significant numbers of players this off-season including AmaZulu (15 players and members of their technical staff), Sekhukhune United (14 players) and Kaizer Chiefs (10 players).
Kadodia said on Times Live: “We just came out of one challenge in the form of Covid-19 and we are walking into a situation where I personally think football is in an economic recession where there’s plenty of unemployment with a lot of players that have been offloaded from many teams.
“That has created a vacuum of unemployment. The financial demands on clubs from the players and agents has been quite high and demanding.”
Kadodia added: “We don’t have the kind of revenue that is growing every year and now we are sitting in a situation for eight years that we manage football with a fixed income. Those are the challenges we have.”