It is estimated that about 70% of South African football fans support either Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates, which begs the question: Are the Soweto giants really good for our soccer?
The 2006/07 season has been described by both the media and fans as boring, lacking intensity and poor in quality, but for me this has been one of the more interesting campaigns in recent times.
Despite Mamelodi Sundowns’ dominance — and they have been excellent in the second half of the season — we have also seen the emergence of the likes of Silver Stars, Ajax Cape Town (with their embarrassment of riches from their youth system) and Moroka Swallows who, but for a slow start, would have pushed Sundowns all the way for the title.
I believe this derision of the campaign is solely down to the fact that both Chiefs and Pirates have been dismal, played negative and unattractive football, and failed to compete in the league and major cup competitions.
Fans’ disappointment at their clubs’ mediocre season seems to have spilled over into the belief that the standard of our domestic game has slipped.
And this has a knock-on effect in all spheres of the industry. Crowd numbers drop (Chiefs had a crowd of 6 000 for a home match against Black Leopards last month. Unheard of!) and people get “turned off” from soccer, which makes sponsors edgy.
At Kick Off magazine, for example, the performances of Chiefs and Pirates have a direct influence on our sales (up or down). That is a fact.
The simple fact is though, the woes of the Amakhosi and Buccaneers has nothing to do with outside influences, but rather the poor decision-making at boardroom level that has seen both of them invest poorly in the transfer market and bring in coaches who were simply not up to the task.
Both clubs have been guilty of that and both have big decisions to make in the coming weeks as they prepare for the new season. But should the outcome of those decisions have such a massive influence on our game?
In very few other countries around the world is the fate of a nation’s so-called “big clubs” so intrinsically aligned with its football. Were Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich to go through such a slump, the effect on the league would be positive, create more interest and probably put more bums on seats at other clubs as the competitive environment was expanded. Those particular teams may suffer with a loss of revenue and some of the less diehard fans losing interest, but the show would go on.
Not in South Africa, it seems, where unless Chiefs or Pirates are challenging for top honours consistently each season, our football is deemed a failure. But we are too far gone now — there is too much water under the bridge.
The Premier Soccer League realised this a few years back when it actively sought to broaden the number of “big clubs” — both in terms of fan base and finances — to try to create competition.
But the stranglehold that Chiefs and Pirates have on the soccer nation is too strong and the programme was always doomed to fizzle out. Not even the excellence of Sundowns can persuade hurt fans of the Soweto giants that all is okay in our league, and they need to look closer to home to rectify their soccer ills.
Nick Said is editor: special projects for Kick Off magazine