Guest blog post by Mohlomi Maubane in Soweto, South Africa
One of South Africa’s iconic tournaments, the Telkom Charity Cup, is no more. PSL chairman Irvin Khoza’s announcement this week brought down the curtain on what was arguably one of the most loved tournaments in the country.
The Charity Cup made its debut in 1986 as the Iwisa Maize Meal Spectacular. This one-day tournament quickly established itself as the domestic season opener. It featured four teams battling off in the semifinals, with the victors meeting in the final later in the day. Local football fans voted for the four teams that took part in the tournament, making the Charity Cup the most interactive professional soccer platform in South Africa. It also served to gear-up fans for the start of the new season.
And now the Charity Cup is no more, with rather puzzling reasons being given for its demise. Khoza explained that the Charity Cup was cancelled to reduce fixture congestion and player fatigue. He added that other knockout tournaments could not be cancelled as they served as qualifiers for international competitions.
Utter nonsense. First, how is canceling a one-day tournament going to reduce fixture congestion? Second, how can players’ fatigue be adversely affected by a one-day tournament at the start of the season? Third, PSL teams have long been apathetic toward African club competitions such as the Champions League and Confederation Cup. Most South African teams prefer to bypass the chance for African adventure for short-term riches at home. So it is disingenuous at best to claim that participation in continental tournaments requires burying the Charity Cup.
If the way to tell when a politician is lying is to see their lips moving, then everything said by a football administrator in South Africa should be taken with a truckload of salt. If there was a tournament worthy of being taken off the local football calendar, it is the Vodacom Challenge. This pre-season tournament features the most popular teams in the country — Orlando Pirates (owned by Khoza) and Kaizer Chiefs — playing against English Premier League opposition. Even though it also essentially entails three matches, it lasts an entire week and no other matches are played when it’s contested.
Methinks the logical reason why the Charity Cup and not the Vodacom Challenge fell to the proverbial axe is because the latter lines up the pockets of some local football heavyweights, while the former mainly benefits numerous charity organizations in the country. Talk about giving a new meaning to ‘charity begins at home’.
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8 replies on “RIP Telkom Charity Cup”
Ngiyabonga kakhulu Mohlomi. Many fiery comments from South African fans about the decision to scrap the Charity Cup here:
http://www.soccerladuma.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13588:telkom-charity-cup-to-fall-away&catid=6:local&Itemid=129
money rules the world, why not soccer. . . sad state of affairs indeed. maybe we need to hit the streets and protest for a change of regime. . .
*The Death of the Charity Cup: A Blessing in Disguise*
It might be a minority view, but I for one am pleased to see the Charity Spectacular go.
It has to do with the fact I’ve been sitting through the event since the first one in 1986 and have increasingly found it an uninspiring and tedious day, far too long to titillate the senses. It has been bemusing to see the storm created by the announcement with a sudden phalanx of self-righteous protectors of charity coming out publicly to bemoan the decision.
Good riddance, I say, and if the public and pundits are that keen on ensuring they support charity then why not just organise a few buckets and willing carriers to sweep through crowd at league games and get people to donate their loose change. Let’s see if the sanctimonious give generously. If everyone is so worried about charity losing out, there are many ways to give.
The reasons that Premier Soccer League chairman Irvin Khoza put forward when announcing the scraping of Charity Cup were weak, especially claiming player fatigue. It is the tournament to mark the start of the season, after all, that is when the players should be as fresh as daisies and roaring to go. If they are the tired after one day of activity, something is seriously wrong with the way they prepare. He should just have told it like it is. Telkom have been seeking to exit that sponsorship for some time now and the whole look of the season needed freshening up. Nothing more.
A realignment of the PSL products is overdue. There will be many who feel the Top Eight competition should be next to go. In its favour, though, is the fact it is a uniquely South African creation, born in the days when there was no international competition, and the race for top eight places at the end of each season adds as much spice, if not more, than the competition itself. It will now start the season in August with the league kick off now only scheduled for the end of that month. Participation in the Top Eight does give a heads up to the half the PSL teams, though, which is unfair.
I think the season needs a few other adjustments. The Nedbank Cup needs to kick off in January rather than March because it is swamped by the league title race and relegation battle. This year’s exciting finish (both title and relegation battles) has completely overshadowed the cup to the extend coaches are now willing to sacrifice the Nedbank Cup and play second string teams because their focus is on the league. That would not happen if the first round was put back two months when clubs are not as desperate. It can’t happen in 2012 of course because the league will be breaking for the African Nations Cup finals, but is an idea for the future.
(See my original post here: http://www.soccer6.co.za/Home/tabid/306/ctl/Details/mid/962/ItemID/429/Default.aspx)
yes, money…and autocratic decision making rules. it’s sadly fitting that the one tournament where people could vote for the teams they wanted, has now been scrapped without consulting the people.
great article…
whole thing is pretty mysterious.
Boss,
Your out-and-our astuteness must gain more recognition.
A more astute observer of the beautiful mnandi game has seldom been seen in this newly word-shy, reading-averse “sosatie” we are cultivating. Where do we read more of your goodness?
Typically, that aurocrat and hijacker of the people had to issue the death certificate. uBoring and predicatable nê? Damn.
Sincerely
Swabile Mahala
Eh!
Check the typos: One early “out-and-out”.
One middling: “autocrat”.
And one near the end, s’bali, that should read “predictable”.
Profound apologies gentle reader.
Salute
Mahala.
Regarding Markus Gleasonus’s post: I’d hate to think that he was biased, but although his remarks seem well-reasoned, I believe the scrapping (not “scraping” Mark) of the competition seems to consign to the dustbin of history, a delightfully democratic, idiosyncratic tournament concept that could only have been born in under-the-cosh ’80’s South Africa.
(Oh yes, it’s “raring” not “roaring to go” bafo Mark).
When I see the players in the IPL for example, weighed down by at least 12 sponsors logos PER UNIFORM on the caps, backs, pockets, trousers, lapels, collars and cuffs, I lament the demise of people’s power in sport. For any league to permit a sponsor (VodaCom) to humiliate the supporters of three PSL teams with their stinking logo, is a farce. Our football is far from perfect, but our criticism is nowhere near as vociferous as it might be. Love ya’ll.