Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs will meet in the Telkom Knockout Cup final at Soccer City on December 4. That’s the fifth Soweto classic of the 2010-11 season, and it’s not Christmas yet.
With the rest of the PSL attracting small crowds after the 2010 World Cup, it is once again the two most popular and richest clubs in South Africa which are expected to generate excitement, entertainment and, most importantly, revenue.
Supporters of Pirates and Chiefs claim, with some legitimacy, that their sides fully earned the right to play in the League Cup final. Bucs fans point to their side’s pair of impressive 3-0 away wins against SuperSport United and Maritzburg United on the road to the final. The Amakhosi faithful proudly note how Chiefs’ defense has not conceded a goal in the entire competition.
But the recent controversy surrounding the selection of venue for the Maritzburg United – Pirates semifinal strongly suggests that the football-media-business complex that runs the seventh-richest league in the world massaged the outcome so that the final would feature the Soweto derby.
The story goes something like this: Maritzburg United’s shock victory against Sundowns in the quarterfinal set up a home match against Pirates. By chance, the November 21st Telkom Cup semifinal was scheduled five days ahead of a league clash between the same sides at Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg.
Suddenly, the PSL announced that, due to safety and security concerns at Harry Gwala, the Cup semifinal was being moved to Chatsworth stadium in Durban. League officials produced a letter from South African Police Force headquarters that allegedly prevented them from approving the 12,000-seat stadium as a Cup venue. The league’s decision proved deeply unpopular in KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial capital.
In response, Maritzburg United officials flew to Johannesburg to meet with the PSL in a last-ditch attempt to move the game back to the club’s home ground. Club officials produced an official statement by the Pietermaritzburg police that guaranteed spectators’ safety at the grounds and underlined how capacity crowds against Pirates in February and Chiefs in September were handled efficiently and without incident. Moreover, Maritzburg United’s representatives highlighted the PSL’s contradictory position, which deemed Harry Gwala stadium safe for the PSL match on Friday, November 26, but unsafe for the Cup tie.
The sending off of coach Ernst Middendorp in the 43rd minute and of substitute Felix Obasa in the 83rd simply confirmed Maritzburg’s worst fears. “For a small but competitive team like Maritzburg it’s tough enough to play Pirates on a level playing field,” wrote Marc Strydom of The Witness, Pietermaritzburg’s daily newspaper. “But when the odds are stacked against you by the PSL removing home-ground advantage then it’s even tougher.”
As the “home fans” left Chatsworth stadium, they could be excused for wondering whether PSL stood for “Premier Soweto League.”
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4 replies on “PSL = Premier Soweto League?”
Football is not all about the athletic activity on the pitch, it has socio-cultural and economic realities that we have to accept. For instance, in Kenya, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards are the equivalent of Chiefs and Pirates, they were very good ‘on and off the pitch’ in the 1980s, which was significantly, the best ever era of Kenyan football. For us, nothing really escapes the ethnic tag, politics, governance, economy, whatever, in Kenya, ethnicity has the last word, and the two clubs represent the Luo and Luhya ethnic groups respectively. Currently, only Gor Mahia is doing well, finished in the second position in the Kenyan Premier League, AFC Leopards finished down there, near the bottom … but we of course know that 8 people lost their lives on the 24th of last month when the two teams met at Nyayo Stadium, a result of a stampede, and I heard from some quarters that the stampede was avoidable, that it was due to witchcraft allegations; the Gor Mahia fans somehow believed that if they used a particular gate into the stadium they could win the match, that the Luhya’s had bewitched all the other gates. Well, Gor Mahia won the match by a single goal, a penalty. It was so painful to me, as a Luhya. I prayed and hoped that they don’t win the league, and my prayers were answered. Ulinzi (a team of the military) won the league …for us, the Luhyas, Gor Mahia not winning the league is just as good as AFC winning it.
This isn’t unsurprising, nor is it new. Chiefs and Pirates are by far the biggest draw in the PSL. But is it really a Soweto conspiracy? Of course we have to question how Khoza and Motaung can be the chairmen of the two glamour clubs along with high profile positions within the league and the FA. However, maybe the other clubs are guilty of doing little to attract new fans and maintain their current support base. Many clubs are guilty of heavily relying on money from the league, doing very little to develop other streams of revenue. It is of no use if the smaller clubs just complain without adatping and modernising themselves.
Maybe they should employ me?!
Solomon’s parallel between Chiefs and Pirates in SA and Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards in Kenya is an excellent one. We could extend it to many other parts of the continent, as I show in my book *African Soccerscapes* (see chapter 4). Al Ahly/Zamalek in Egypt, Hearts of Oak/Asante Kotoko in Ghana, ASEC Abidjan/Africa Sports in Ivory Coast, Simba/Yanga in Tanzania . . . you get the idea.
Marc is also right to suggest that smaller clubs have not used their PSL grants wisely. One of the most obvious examples of this misdirection of funds is the lack of creditable youth systems at club level (with rare exceptions). However, it is hard to blame clubs like Maritzburg — hardly a paragon of professionalism and long-term vision — and others for not being able to build a bigger following when they can’t host Cup finals on their home ground.
Agreed, with both Marc and Peter. Far too many PSL clubs are far too happy with the grants from the PSL. Every season, when the league starts, their main objective is just to sit mid-table. The idea is “as long as we are not relegated we are OK”. The mere fact that the club is in the PSL already guarantees that it is an expensive asset. (Note the fact that Vasco have already been offered R40-million for its PSL franchise, and they are in their debut in the league).
Nevertheless, not to take anything away from Maritzburg’s complaints, but on this issue I would side with the PSL.
There has been far too many security incidents at PSL games over the years involving Chiefs and Pirates that it would be far better for the league to err on the side of caution.
A cup semi-final brings with it more interest and more people, more emotion and more passion. The league match remains a normal match, as the charge for ther title is a marathon rather than a one-off. There is just so much more at stake for a cup match, and therefore, so much more risk attached.
Chatsworth was therefore, in my humble opinion, the right route to take.