Andrew Muchineripi Soccer
I am seriously wondering whether some soccer officials have not lost the plot. Crowds are dwindling fast at Premier Soccer League (PSL) fixtures, yet they want to introduce another competition.
Amid all the talk of fixture congestion, the PSL board of governors wants the Top Eight competition revived, with media speculation hinting at former sponsors BP pumping millions into the event.
Surely the first priority is to get people back into the stadia to watch matches in the three current competitions, the Castle Premiership, Rothmans Cup and Bob Save Super Bowl?
This humble member of the Muchineripi clan has followed the PSL closely and attended more matches than I care to remember since its inception three years ago, with much hype and hope.
After three relatively interesting and successful seasons, there is something missing this year. There is no spark and I believe the constant disruption of fixtures for a variety of reasons has much to do with it.
The multimillion-rand Rothmans Cup is a good example. The sensational first-round defeat of twice- winners Kaizer Chiefs was staged on a Sunday evening far from Johannesburg and media coverage was poor.
To me, a remarkable achievement by traditionally poor cup competitors from Cape Town passed almost unnoticed, and there was more evidence last weekend that the glitter is beginning to wear off the self-styled “unbelievable” cup.
Take soccer to the people (meaning the townships) and the crowds will flood to the grounds like they did in the 1970s and 1980s, the spin doctors trading as PROs advised us.
Well, to the best of my limited geographical knowledge, Vosloorus is a township inhabited largely by people whose first sporting love is soccer. Or is it?
I pose the question because the turnout for the quarter-final, second-leg tie between Jomo Cosmos and Free State Stars was pathetic, with only a couple of thousand people bothering to turn up.
The ingredients were certainly there for a lively afternoon of entertainment, with Cosmos facing the tough but by no means impossible task of overcoming a two-goal deficit from the first match in QwaQwa.
Whatever the apologists might have us believe, the majority of Vosloorus residents clearly had other things on their mind last Sunday afternoon. It is a worrying situation.
Did the live broadcast of the match reduce the crowd? It probably did because the money spent entering the stadium can be used for beer, pap and vleis and there is less risk of you or your car becoming a crime statistic.
Not that I totally buy the crime line. I have attended every match at Loftus Stadium and Caledonian Stadium this season and visited Johannesburg on several occasions for fixtures without having a cent “nationalised”.
While admitting that only a pretty desperate thief would have even the remotest interest in my rapidly rusting “wheels”, the fact remains that it has returned intact from every soccer outing.
Besides, you need angry people to create a disturbance at a ground and these days you are more likely to fall asleep from boredom than be assaulted by a fellow sufferer.
And amid all the gloom we still have people like the Rothmans representative interviewed at half-time during the Cosmos match pretending that all is well with the world and the sun is shining.
Shame on SABC roving reporter Brian Mulder for letting him off the hook. It was a bit like the captain of the Titanic telling passengers to relax because the water swirling around their waists had been caused by one overflowing bath.
Let us be brutally frank. Soccer in South Africa is nearer the mortuary than the maternity ward with only Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and, to a much lesser extent, Sundowns capable of wooing five-figure crowds.
I have explored the reasons for the fast-growing problem many times in these pages: lack of personalities, mediocre soccer, cheap counter attractions, lifestyle changes and too large a national championship, to name some.
To the credit of PSL, chief executive Joe Ndhlela has publicly admitted there is a crisis looming and hired independent market researchers to explore the reasons behind the empty stands.
As much as soccer needs the Amakhosi and the Buccaneers, it needs generous sponsors, and if the crowds continue to dwindle, the men who pump millions into the game may start wondering if they are wasting their time and their money.
PS: My column on SABC soccer coverage certainly had an impact.
The postman is threatening to sue for new shoes, the fax machine batteries have been replaced twice and the sports editor blames me for every e-mail traffic jam.
Some of you thought I was a little harsh and others believed the advancing years are making me soft. I made my point and rest my case. Suffice to say that I turned off the volume 10 minutes into Laduma last Sunday.
Like many inhabitants of this beautiful land I prefer to look at the pictures and listen to the radio. I want information. I want entertainment. I want to be educated about the intricacies of the game. Laduma fails on every count.
ENDS
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