Julia Beffon
crossfire
On Friday, March 2, Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour will meet representatives of the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the South African Football Association (Safa) and broadcasters M-Net, the SABC and e.tv to discuss the burning issue of the day: how too much televised British football is destroying our local game.
This “crisis” meeting has been called because of comments by a visi-ting British professor at a conference. Perhaps he spoke on a slow news day, perhaps someone with a mischievous agenda decided to play up the issue.
Whatever the reason, his suggestion that the number of English matches screened by M-Net’s SuperSport be curbed in favour of local games was taken up by PSL and Safa officials, who decided to invoke world soccer governing body Fifa statutes and the Broadcasting Act to wave the big stick at the pay channel.
In the past week or so this row has been front-page news. Just about everyone connected to sport, it seems, believes that by cutting down on the number of English games broadcast in South Africa not only will the soccer stadiums be filled but attendances will rise at all other sports too.
It seems a comment from a visitor that I first dismissed as a bit daft but perhaps taken out of context as I had not attended the Partners in Sport conference had revealed great truths about a new colonialism?…
But before we buy into this nonsense, let’s examine a few other factors.
Besides the hardy perennials of fixture chaos and dubious refereeing, there are many reasons for declining attendances this season.
Firstly, money. If beer sales are down and horse racing is in crisis as a result of the lottery, how can soccer bosses be blind to the fact that some of the disposable income that used to go on match tickets is now going to “Tata ma chance”? And, with unemployment levels running at over 40%, how many fans can afford a ticket anyway, never mind taking their partners or children along with them?
Secondly, violence. The pictures from Vosloorus of rioting spectators during the women’s African championships last year (the stands were full possibly because entrance was free), must have put fear into the hearts of many. This was not an isolated incident. Hardly a week goes by without some disgruntled “fans” taking out their wrath on the match officials/ other fans/the seating (if it exists).
Thirdly, facilities. In England (do I dare make the comparison?) each team has its own home ground; all-seater venues with strict rules that are enforced. In South Africa even the biggest clubs do not have home grounds and the facilities at many stadiums leave a great deal to be desired. As a female fan who sits with the crowds, not in the press box, I can attest to the lack of even half-way decent toilet facilities at most venues. Also, how many parents feel comfortable taking their children to places that are afloat on clouds of dagga smoke?
Fourthly, corruption. Fans are tired of the squalid little cloud that hangs over the game. Then there’s the ticklish question of quality. Are the mandarins at Safa and the PSL so ashamed of their product this is professional sport, not a kickaround with your friends that they’d rather ban the opposition than try to compete? The English league is acknowledged as being one of the best in the world and has many followers in South Africa.
Those are some of the real problems facing South African soccer. Few have anything to do with television unless you argue that images of soccer violence should not be broadcast.
It can be argued, however, that there might be more bums on seats if there was less TV coverage: less coverage of local games, not international ones.
Perhaps if the SABC blacked out broadcasts to the region where big matches were being played Gauteng, say, if Chiefs and Pirates were playing at FNB stadium more spectators would turn up. I can’t see the soccer bosses taking up that suggestion, though. It’s much easier to knock the Brits.
A less inflammatory suggestion would be charge pubs, clubs and shebeens that show English matches a fee that could go towards soccer development. A similar system operates with the horse-racing industry, where private subscribers can get the broadcasts free while totes, bookies and clubs have to pay for the service.
All of this presupposes that somehow South African soccer bosses should have control over what we watch, and that somehow which matches are shown are in the “national interest”. It sounds vaguely warm and cuddly to say we should support our local teams against those big, bad, well-off English clubs, but what if this were taken into other areas? What if M-Net appealed to the government to force the SABC to can The Bold and the Beautiful because it draws viewers away from the local soapie Egoli? I’m sure there’d be an outcry.
M-Net has maintained its dignity, with director of enterprises Imtiaz Patel stressing that the broadcaster does not feel it has any fight with the soccer authorities. Perhaps this is because the PSL is in negotiations to sell a package of local games to the pay channel on top of the multimillion-rand deal it has with the SABC to broadcast 72 games a season. Is this threat to how many English games can be shown a ploy to squeeze a better deal from M-Net? Surely not even our soccer bosses could stoop so low.
ENDS