As long as they remain overwhelmingly the most popular soccer clubs in the country, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates should be entrenched as participants in the annual Telkom Charity Cup.
Who says so? None other than loquacious, controversial one-time Premier Soccer League public-relations officer Abdul Bhamjee, who not only came up with the brainwave of staging a four-team extravaganza to aid the most needy of charities 20 year ago, but also was the prime influence in the construction of the FNB Stadium where the event is held annually.
”The prime function of this memorable day of fun, festivities and football,” said Bhamjee on Tuesday, ”is to fill the stands to their maximum capacity — and, let’s face it, this cannot be done without the presence of Chiefs and Pirates.”
Bhamjee was commenting on the shock absence from Saturday’s event of recent Vodacom Challenge winners Pirates as a result of a flawed public voting system whereby a single individual can submit hundreds and thousands of votes.
”It’s not a case of favouritism in this case,” said Bhamjee, ”but simply a practical issue as far as the charity tournament is concerned.”
Bhamjee also advocated the dumping of the current voting system, which is ”nothing more than a sham and a fiasco”, and suggested the ideal participants would be Chiefs, Pirates, the current Premier League champions and the Absa Cup winners.
”If Pirates or Chiefs are the holders of either of these titles,” he added, ”the highest-placed of the remaining teams would automatically fill the void.”
Under Bhamjee’s ”system”, this year’s Telkom Charity Cup field would have consisted of Chiefs; Pirates; Mamelodi Sundowns, who finished third in last season’s Premier League behind Chiefs and Pirates; and SuperSport United, the Absa Cup holders.
And who could argue this field would have provided the promise of a more appetising days’ football than the one in which a flawed voting system has produced Chiefs, Sundowns, Bloemfontein Celtic and Black Leopards as the lop-sided participants? — Sapa