Andrew Muchineripi Jnr Soccer
When your grandchild greets you in 2040AD and inquires about the origins of the African Super League, you will say it all began back in 1999 when the R1-million Vodacom Challenge was launched.
The child will give a blank stare and wonder what the connection is between the annual club championship that attracts billions of rand in sponsorship and an event staged when DStv had only 60 channels.
Being a good grandpa, you will temporarily cancel a telephone call to the Moon Travel Agency, put aside the TV guide that helps you select from 2 145 satellite channels and focus on football.
While life has changed dramatically since the dawn of the new millennium, you will adopt an old-fashioned approach and take the child back to the Africa of the 1950s.
To 1956, in fact, and the roots of organised football on the continent. Out of a meeting in Lisbon between officials from South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan was born the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
A few wise men created the African Nations Cup, then the African Champions Cup, which had truly humble beginnings in 1964 with only clubs from hosts Ghana, Cameroon, Mali and Ethiopia participating.
You will explain to a now captivated grandchild that the competition for national championship winners gradually grew in stature and size and by the mid- 1990s there were more than 40 entrants.
On your workaboard (they used to be known as desks) you will show him a picture of the 1995 Orlando Pirates team – the first South African champions to conquer Africa and lift the Champions Cup.
He never saw those Buccaneers in action, but remembers that a dinner was organised recently for the team and a group of frail, grey-haired men led by Edward Motale attended.
You explain that players had nicknames in those days. Motale was known as MaGents, Gavin Lane was Stability Unit, midfielder John Moeti was Dungi and club chair Irvin Khoza was referred to as the Iron Duke.
The gaze from the pride and joy of your life suggests that the link between the African Super League and the Vodacom Challenge is still not immediately obvious. You explain that the best stories always take a little longer.
You remind him that the Mail & Guardian used to have a soccer reporter called Andew Muchineripi, who took at least 800 words each week to expound his thoughts on the game.
When his sports editor suggested many years ago that the people of the 21st century did not have time for more than 700 pieces of his pearly prose, he headed for the hills never to be seen again. Rumour has it he now spends most of the time tending to his cattle.
Your grandchild snuggles up against you on a chilly winter afternoon and the tale turns to Khoza, now near 90, but still a proud figure with strong opinions who rarely misses an important soccer occasion.
The Iron Duke realised by the mid-1990s that the all-play, no-pay African Champions Cup could not continue indefinitely, so he suggested to then CAF president Issa Hayatou that prize money be introduced.
By 1997 the dream had become reality and the African Champions League was formed with a sponsorship of $3-million. The child laughs because the new car mummy bought last week cost more.
You explain that in those days $3-million was a lot of money on a continent much poorer than it is today. You add that no sooner had the Champions League been launched than the Iron Duke was setting new sights.
Europe had launched a Champions League involving all the great names of the 1990s, like AC Milan, Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Real Madrid.
You mean the same Manchester United that are now battling against relegation from the English Third Division, asks the child. Yes, you reply, things have not been quite the same since Sir Alex Ferguson retired four decades ago.
What the Iron Duke and Kaizer Motaung (the former Kaizer Chiefs chair who celebrated his 85th birthday last week) did was convince Vodacom to start a four-club tournament during the last year of the last century.
Memories are fading – after all, you are 112 and not expected to live more than another 30 years – but you believe the first contestants were Chiefs, Pirates, ASEC of Cte d’Ivoire and Esperance of Tunisia.
The child dashes to his compufile and confirms that grandad has not lost all his marbles. Chiefs played Esperance in the first semi-final at Odi Stadium on July 3 1999 and Pirates faced ASEC the following day in Port Elizabeth.
Each year two African club giants came to South Africa to play Chiefs and Pirates. You cannot remember the results of the matches, but there were many thrillers and the Iron Duke always had a smile when the Challenge finished.
His dream of a Super League in which the leading clubs from Cairo to Cape Town played each other at home and away was taking shape, and it became reality in 2010, or was it 2011. Ah, the impediments of middle age.
Suddenly the silence was broken. “Are you guys ready,” asks your daughter-in-law. What a sweetie. She had bought us tickets for the African Super League match between the Gauteng Gladiators and the Tunis Tornadoes and the helicopter blades were whirling outside.
To think we used to travel to FNB Stadium by car!