Festival of soccer for Mdantsane
Sisa Dukashe Stadium set to host four U21 games in January showpiece
Thrilling soccer action is returning to Mdantsane in the new year, as the MultiChoice Diski Challenge Festival is set to be battled out at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium on January 12 and 13 next year.
Four massive U21 match-ups are set to be battled out over two days at the stadium, which should bring a lot of excitement to the local community.
“What we are doing is bringing soccer to the people,” said MultiChoice Corporate Communications manager Kenneth Nxumalo.
“We will be activating in Mdantsane on the Thursday and Friday just to get the community excited and to come out to the stadium.
“Then we will have two matches on Saturday and two matches on Sunday for the fans to enjoy.”
The Diski Challenge has been in action for months now and has already hosted a number of festivals.
“We have been going all over the country with these festivals and decided that it was time for it to come to East London now, so we are happy to bring it here,” said Nxumalo.
“We normally bring rugby festivals to the Sisa Dukashe, but now decided it was time to bring soccer as well to give the community a different sport to enjoy.
“It will be quite exciting. We have a lot of things like competitions and entertainment that will be happening at the stadium over the two days of play, so there will be plenty for everyone to do.”
The action will see Cape Town City taking on Sundowns and Baroka against Kaizer Chiefs, both on the Saturday and then Bidvest Wits up against Polokwane City and Chippa United against Orlando Pirates on the Sunday.
Cape Town City, Polokwane and Wits are all form sides so far in the competition, with City topping the log, while Polokwane sit third and Wits fourth, so it will be an important weekend in which the teams will want to keep their good form going.
“It is still the group stages, which will finish in February. Then they go to the knockouts between April and May. So it is quite a long soccer season that starts in August and ends in May,” said Nxumalo.
“Then the winning team will go overseas, where they will be exposed to international players, international coaches and to see and experience what it is like to play internationally, and they will learn a lot of things there.
“So these are very important games in terms of log placings, and we are really looking forward to coming down there.” Fixtures: Saturday, January 12: 10am: Cape Town City FC v Mamelodi Sundowns; 12 noon: Baroka FC v Kaizer Chiefs. Sunday, January 13 10am: Bidvest Wits v Polokwane City; 12 noon: Chippa United v Orlando Pirates.