‘We are listening,’ say Beer Cup organisers

THE organisers of the lucrative preseason encounter between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have not closed the door on the possibility of inviting other PSL clubs to participate in the money-spinning offseason event in the future.

The country’s most popular clubs meet at the FNB Stadium on Saturday in the latest instalment of the Carling Black Label Champion Cup and, as has been norm in the seven years of its existence‚ tickets to the event were sold out days ago.

But the game has its share of critics and Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) events manager Puso Makume had to answer questions about the exclusion of the other PSL clubs from an event that rakes in millions in revenue every year.

While Makume was reluctant to step into a potential minefield‚ he revealed that the door was not closed on the possibility of the twomember exclusive club welcoming guests in the future.

“Look‚ Carling Black Label is now the official alcohol sponsor of the Premier Soccer League and we do not know what that will bring‚” he said yesterday.

“Before our bosses give us money to do something else‚ we need to do proper research to determine whe- ther it will work.

“But we are listening‚ that’s what I’m saying. We are taking everything into account that the consumers and fans are fighting about.”

Tickets to the match were sold out some 12 days ahead of the encounter despite a social media campaign to boycott the event.

Some fans still complain about the event’s existence on the calendar seven years after its inception and argue that it should never have replaced what used to be the domestic season’s traditional opener – The Charity Cup.

But this does not seem to matter to the thousands who descend on the venue every year.

The event remains as popular as ever despite it’s gimmick element and Makume said they were never really bothered when they heard about the campaign to boycott this year’s game.

“They [social media campaigns] don’t bother me because I believe this event as its own thing is big enough to conquer that‚” he said.

This friendly match‚ nicknamed “The Beer Cup” by soccer fans‚ has seen more people go through the FNB Stadium turnstiles than a Springboks v New Zealand Test‚ Bafana Bafana matches‚ cup finals and even official league games between Chiefs and Pirates. — DDC