Bias, divisions mark SA soccer

2004-07-20 14:25

Three hundred fans, according to media estimates, turned out for the CAF Champions League match between SuperSport United and Esperance at Loftus on Sunday, July 11.

The disappointing picture of the gigantic empty rugby stadium in Pretoria was beamed throughout Africa via satellite, and the whole continent saw South African passion for soccer for what it is: stunted, insufficient and divided.

Firstly, the love for soccer in South Africa is stunted because on the same day Loftus was empty Mmabatho stadium in Mafikeng was filled to capacity. The occasion there was the annual Vodacom Challenge, an off-season friendly tournament involving Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs against visiting teams. This year the visitors were Congolese clubs TP Mazembe and AS Vita Club.

The enthusiasm the Challenge generates among fans has helped expose an annoying reality that there is no uniformity in the passion for soccer in South Africa. While soccer fans in another big African country can fill stadiums in different cities on the same day to watch their heroes in action, real support in South Africa is seen where Chiefs - and a distant second Pirates - are in action.

South African fans demonstrated this bizarre trend during the 1996 African Cup of Nations, when they boycotted all the other matches and only attended Bafana Bafana matches.

Which event is more important?

Secondly, the support for soccer is not enough. Loftus is a good 200km from Mmabatho, and therefore the North West venue did not necessarily provide a counter-attraction to an important match happening in a big city like Pretoria.

The Champions League is the most important club competition in Africa, and United are the only South African team still in contention. If the Pretoria public did not know this fact, how are they expected to support foreign teams who will play at Loftus in 2010 when they failed to support their own team on that Sunday?

If a glamorous side like Esperance of Tunisia is in town for CAF's premier club contest, what more can be said or done to entice soccer fans to go out to support such an auspicious occasion?

Thirdly, the Vodacom Challenge received more coverage in the local media, far more than the United-Esperance match did. Need I ask which of the two events was more important?

Granted, Vodacom spent thousands of rands to market their competition, and it is within their rights to do so. But they did not ask newspapers, radio and TV to ignore the United match - or make reference to it in passing.

The media ignored the Loftus match because they were hoodwinked by the glamour the Challenge offered - especially because Chiefs and Pirates were involved.

No unity in SA soccer

This exposed the bias soccer journalists have in their reporting. But soccer stands to be a loser when the interests of certain clubs are deemed to be more important than of others.

The argument that United could have saved themselves embarrassment by staging their game on Saturday is valid. Yes, what did they do to market their match?

These arguments unfortunately cannot hide the fact that there is no unity in South African soccer, and that favouritism and uneven development have taken precedence.

The 2010 World Cup is around the corner. If we don't rectify these shortcomings in our soccer soon, we'll be exposed terribly on the world stage - right here at home.

Do you agree? Tell Tumo what you think?

Tumo Mokone is the sports editor for the Sunday Sun.

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