The enigma that is South African soccer was again evident on Thursday as the South African Airways Supa8 competition experienced a stuttering take-off on the eve of the weekend’s two opening fixtures.
Last week at this time, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) was swelling its chest while announcing a sell-out crowd in the vicinity of 80 000 for the Telkom Charity Cup extravaganza at FNB Stadium.
But only 48 hours before star-studded PSL champions and Telkom Cup winners Mamelodi Sundowns are due to face Santos in the Supa8 competition on Sunday, a mere seven tickets had been sold for the match at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium.
And top PSL crowd-pullers Chiefs were doing little better to arouse the fans from their lethargy for their game against Golden Arrows at FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with barely 300 tickets sold for the match.
How does one explain this startling disparity in ticket sales between the Telkom Charity Cup and the Supa8 competition? It’s simply another frustrating contradiction in the goings-on of the game in the country.
Sundowns’ website, to be sure, did not help matters by informing all and sundry that the Santos game would take place on Saturday and not Sunday, with this confusion hardly helping to send fans storming the booking outlets.
And when the PSL organised a media conference for Thursday at which the coaches of Sundowns, Santos, Chiefs and Arrows were all supposedly due to expound their views on the weekend games, none of them turned up.
Ticket sales will surely escalate to some considerable degree before the weekend, but there is something wrong in local football with such an illogical balance in interest and attendance.
Sundowns, meanwhile, are intent on continuing roughshod over all opposition with a squad bolstered further this week by the acquisition of Mbulelo Mabisela and Lungisani Ndlela and one that is undoubtedly the envy of all teams in the PSL.
And such is the Brazilians’ comfort zone at this moment that joint coach Neil Tovey was able to declare that Mabisela and Ndlela were not contenders for places in Sunday’s line-up against Santos, as their fitness level did not match that of the other players.
After impressive form in the pre-season Vodacom Challenge, Chiefs have faltered in their recent two one-day tournaments against Moroka Swallows and Sundowns — and are eager to revive their fortunes against Arrows.
A warning to both Sundowns and Chiefs, however, is that the Supa8 tournament has a penchant for producing the unexpected — with no surprise more pleasing, perhaps, than bumper crowds emerging from the woodwork to watch both opening games. — Sapa