Stix Morewa is leaving but it will take a lot more than that to heal the wounds in South African soccer
SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi
AS South African Football Association (Safa) executive president Solomon “Stix” Morewa prepares to pack his bags and abandon centre stage, he leaves the sport in a sad and sick state.
If the Pickard Commission into mismanagement in domestic football was meant to heal the wounds that have grown more septic as each year passed, it failed dismally.
Where once there were gaps between rival groups of officials, there are now chasms. Perhaps the shock but inevitable departure of Morewa will have a positive effect, but only an incurable optimist would bet on it. Call it Safa vs National Soccer League (NSL), call it A team vs B team, call it Kaizer Motaung vs Irvin Khoza, call it what you will. The harsh reality is that South African football remains bitterly divided.
Rival officials do not talk to each other, rival organisations barely communicate. The Premier Soccer League saw plans to bring English Premiership stars like Ryan Giggs and Eric Cantona to South African dashed by Safa indifference.
If truth is the first casualty in war, then ordinary football fans inevitably suffer first when officials row and South Africa owes Morewa gratitude for quitting rather than triggering a potentially bitter feud. World controlling body Fifa reiterated this week that direct government interference in attempts to sack the R33 000-a-month Safa chief would have led to Bafana Bafana’s expulsion from the World Cup.
National Sports Council president Mluleki George spoke this week of not resting until the sport had been fully cleaned up. It is an honourable mission, and it could take considerable time. Every nook and every cranny of every organisation at every level must be explored with a magnifying glass. There is much that is still rotten in the state of South African football.
The game is awash with money thanks to a queue of generous sponsors anxious to jump on a bandwagon offering them access to a constantly growing consumer market.
South African Breweries pumps millions of rand into the Premier League and the national senior team and First National Bank sponsors the leading knockout competition.
Sasol bankrolls the national under-23 team, United Bank carries the tab for the youth squad and Coca-Cola underwrites the junior side. These are not petty sponsorships, either, with millions of rand being ploughed into football.
Informed sources speak of a new cup competition, with each round except the final being played on a home-and-away basis and prize money totalling R5-million.
A small cartoon in a Johannesburg newspaper showed a satisfield Judge Benjamin Pickard walking away from a rubbish dump with one full dustbin. Considerable waste lay behind.
That summarises the situation in the most popular sport in the country, a game loved by millions but constantly abused by officials more interested in promoting themselves than the game.
The mistakes of Morewa, considered unfit to run football in a damning report released last week, were uncovered by the commission because it dug deep with shovels.
But it appeared only spades were used when it came to other personalties, and alleged corruption within the football media. For years there have been stories of payments for favours rendered and the same names keep cropping up.
The Pickard Commission represented a unique opportunity to cut South African football to the bone, to rid the organisation of the individuals who put self-interest ahead of the beautiful game. When, if ever, will there be another opportunity to turn on the spotlight so strongly. There is still a stench at the rubbish dump and the game cannot prosper until it disappears.
For one football fan the problems of South African football are no longer a concern because he was fatally wounded last Saturday after Orlando Pirates defeated Kaizer Chiefs at Ellis Park.
On yet another tragic day for soccer an unruly mob who could not gain entrance tried to force their way past police, resulting in stun grenades being fired.
Following the Chiefs-Moroka Swallows fiasco at Johannesburg Stadium, the Premier Soccer League vowed there would not be a repeat. Try telling that to relatives of the slain supporter.
Of course, football cannot be held entirely to blame as the crowd trouble mirrors a society where law and order are under constant attack. However, other sports seem to have considerably more success when it comes to policing crowds.
The solution lies in all-ticket matches when big clubs are involved with tickets going on sale several days before the match and no one without one being allowed near the stadium.
In these dark days for the sport adored by millions from the Cape Flats to Thohoyandou, there is perhaps a glimmer of hope in the fact that England has largely eradicated hooliganism.
Once a cancer eating away the very heart of the game, it has been cured by a series of measures including the advance sale of tickets, good policing and all-seater stadiums.
The difference between the countries is graphically illustrated by the deployment of security officials. In England, they face the crowd and watch for troublemakers; in South Africa they face the pitch and watch the match. Those hired to protect South African fans are more concerned with what is happening on the field than in the stands.
If this relatively minor problem cannot be addressed, what price major obstacles being overcome. If there is a shaft of light within the tunnel, it is that the most important assets in the industry, the footballers, continue to excel. Derbies may be a worldwide phenomenon, but as Chiefs technical director Jeff Butler rightly said, few can match those between the Amakhosi and the Buccaneers.
It is a passion play almost beyond compare. The magic provided by stars like Jerry Sikhosana, Dumisa Ngobe and Pollen Ndlanya offers hope of a better future.