Andrew Muchineripi SOCCER
It never ceases to amaze me how much hot air is exhaled by Premier Soccer League coaches on the issue of fixture congestion without their offering even one constructive suggestion as to how the problem can be solved.
Paul Dolezar says Sundowns face a 13- month season and the reaction of this humble scribe was that the Franco-Yugoslav should rush to the patents office because he has discovered the secret of longevity. Muhsin Ertugral of Kaizer Chiefs blamed a surfeit of Bafana Bafana matches for the problem, which I would liken to looking down a hole when there is a problem atop a skyscraper.
One does not need to be a rocket scientist or a bachelor of arts to realise the origin of the domestic fixture overload lies in a national championship that is at least six clubs too big.
When attendances started dwindling at grounds in former “white” areas a few seasons ago, the spin doctors informed us the solution was taking the game to the people, meaning the townships.
Moroka Swallows went to the former home of our national sport, Orlando Stadium, but the people were nowhere to be found. Most Jomo Cosmos fixtures in Vosloorus on the East Rand are watched by a couple of hundred diehards.
Celtic cannot attract more than a thousand people from Bloemfontein for home matches, except when crowd-pullers Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs come to town.
Even our beloved Bafana Bafana, so often the magnet for lukewarm supporters, did not entice more than 10E000 spectators to the north-west town of Phokeng, an area allegedly starved of top-class football.
Behind the missing thousands lies social as well as sporting reasons. South Africa is a relatively prosperous country with an increasing number of people enjoying disposable income.
Whereas residents of most African countries have few options when it comes to entertainment, our people can enjoy themselves in so many ways with football competing for their time and money.
There is nothing wrong with our soccer that a few bold moves cannot put right. But until the 18-club Premiership is transformed from a product offering quantity to one providing quality, the moaning will continue.
So how do you cut the championship by six clubs? The answer is simple: for two seasons you promote two clubs (one each from the inland and coastal streams of the MTN First Division) and you relegate five from the Premiership.
By the start of the 2002-2003 season you will have 12 clubs, the crSme de la crSme. It is hardly a coincidence that the league which produces the most successful clubs in Africa – Tunisia – consists of 12 clubs.
The present set-up has failed and football fans are voting with their feet, attending matches in increasingly smaller numbers because they are dissatisfied with the product on display.
There are too many meaningless fixtures like Mother City versus Free State Stars while attractive matches involving the “big three” are often relegated to midweek evenings.
For clubs like Stars, visits from Sundowns, Pirates and Chiefs represent the only chance to attract big crowds and how owner Mike Mokoena must curse his luck when forced to play the “cash cows” on cold, wet, midweek evenings.
World governing body Fifa has suggested four weeks rest and another four weeks of pre-season training in its much-publicised world calendar proposal and I would support this.
This leaves 44 weekends with 22 devoted to the Premiership, eight to the successor to the Rothmans Cup, five to the Bob Save Super Bowl and three to the revived BP Top Eight.
That leaves just six weeks for Bafana
Bafana, Amaglug-glug, youth and junior international fixtures, African club competitions and other tournaments.
We should also try to remember that the beautiful game is also played by the gentler sex and they are equally entitled to the publicity and media attention that can be guaranteed only by an otherwise blank weekend.
Even with 12 clubs there is hardly sufficient time and the best footballers will continue to suffer because they are victims of their success – every coach wants them in his team.
It is worth remembering that English Premiership coaches are also unhappy playing two matches a week and they, unlike their South African counterparts, have large, full-time professional squads to choose from.
Anyone watching our brand of Premiership fare knows there is a desperate need for players to improve their passing and their shooting (high, wide and not so handsome is the order of the day).
One senses the present fixture madness cannot continue much longer with a worldwide acceptance that players are being driven beyond breaking point. Is it too much to hope that South Africa can lead rather than follow?