A freak storm, accompanied by gale-force winds, sent the entire row of wooden billboards on the east side of the Ellis Park pitch hurtling crazily through the air during the opening minutes of a Premier Soccer League (PSL) game between Orlando Pirates and Black Leopards and struck down players from both teams, as well as one of the assistant referees.
Pirates captain Lehlohonolo Seema and Black Leopards Jabu Maluleke were stretchered off the pitch as the game was halted amid scenes of shocked chaos both on and off the field — but both returned when the game was resumed after a seven-minute break.
However, ominous flashes of lightning and torrential rain that flooded the central portion of the pitch caused the match to be abandoned soon afterwards.
The storm on the field came in the wake of increasing chaos in The Buccaneers camp, with one of the most popular and tradition-steeped clubs in South African soccer plummeting towards the relegation zone in the PSL.
”It’s a warning from the gods to put their house in order,” suggested one Pirates’ supporter with an imaginative streak, while another spectator in the rain-soaked crowd suggested ”it looked as though we were experiencing an earthquake.”
Nothing as morbid as this materialised.
But the flying billboards took to the air at a venue that will host the 2010 Soccer World Cup and was watched on cable TV by millions throughout Africa.
It will doubtless cause a degree of concern for those in charge of on-field security in the PSL and South African soccer generally.
The game between the two troubled teams in the lower regions of the log, which officials said would be replayed ”at the earliest possible date we can find”, also began 15 minutes late because of flaws in the floodlighting system.
An ominous premonition, perhaps, of the mayhem that was to follow. — Sapa