Beautifulgame
Making their life easier
THERE have been several unsavoury events here and abroad in recent weeks that have underlined a growing fear that football fans are too often seen as ignorant and powerless consumers of a sport that makes a minority of role-players rich through unethical means.
These events include the Sam Allardyce scandal, the controversially-quick buying and selling of clubs by the Morfou brothers of Black Aces and, down to the pitch itself, the unprofessional attitude of the Maritzburg team before shocked home supporters.
As a tasteless collection in England and South Africa, these happenings may have left football lovers wondering about the part of the game they don’t get to witness – the dodgy deals scored in boardrooms or via cellphones between the power brokers.
Some call it the “underground network” and it runs through many territories because Pele’s “beautiful game” is really the “money game” these days. And that’s even before we get to the nefarious betting side of things.
Allardyce’s unethical behaviour with regard to transfer regulations for clubs, which led to his sacking as England manager last week, is far from new, but reminds everybody about the existence of shady off-field dribbling.
As former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore said in a piece in the Telegraph: “This week’s stories have rocked, but not shocked, our national game – the whole culture needs to change and that can only start with those at the very top.”
He also said the following that could apply in SA and elsewhere: “I don’t know whether it’s because there is such a working-class element in football that people hear of the chance to make an extra grand or two and forget that they’re already earning £3 million, £4m or £5m a year in the first place.”
The Allardyce saga helped some of us understand, to our horror, that cunning agents don’t only do questionable business with multiple club coaches and officials, but some of them are actually “full-time employees” of clubs to take care of money-saving or money-making transfers while passing as certified independent operators.
In our land, the Morfou brothers, Mario and George, may have allowed themselves to be judged as “clever operators” by the way they sold the Mpumalanga Black Aces franchise and suddenly acquired another team in the division just beneath the pro ranks in Alexandra, Gauteng, from the end of last season. They said in a statement at the time of the Aces deal with John Comitis of Cape Town that “selling this club is like tearing out a piece of our hearts” but they needed to do it so they could place more focus on their family business, Lakama.
Well, their heartbreak did not seem to endure, given their new football operation that is apparently aimed at climbing up the ranks to exactly the same division where Aces used to be.
Aces fans appear to have been sold a dummy of sorts.
Finally, Maritzburg’s players were allegedly oblivious of the need to respect their supporters’ passion and investment in a match ticket when they miserably failed to perform to standard in last week’s loss to Polokwane City.
Coach Ernst Middendorp said “circumstances”, or football politics, had caused his men to be so listless in what was their third match without a win at home this season and their third consecutive defeat generally.
The fans may not have been privy to, or able to help in the solving of, off-field issues, but they nevertheless should have received an official apology for such a lame showing by Middendorp’s men. And, whatever claims coach and company might have about poor officiating and unscrupulous administrators within the PSL, their diehards will remind them that they are only making life easier for their enemies through depressing performances.