We were left puzzled…
On their trip to Turkey for a series of friendlies
This week, we had an honour of traveling to Turkey, where we played friendly matches against teams like Giresunspor (drew 1-1), Sampdoria (lost 5-1) from Italy and Albatib Club of Saudi Arabia (drew 1-1). We started planning for this trip around December last year, but we had to cancel it because we were faced with a relegation dogfight last season. We started planning again in September and October this year. When our coach (Sead Ramovic) was not on the bench in the first two matches after the FIFA break, he was planning for this in Europe. He was back and was on the bench when we played against Kaizer Chiefs and Sekhukhune United. He executed an epic plan because these types of things cannot be pulled overnight. Sampdoria, who we played against on Sunday, is a big team and other teams in Europe are longing to play against them. They are in the top three European leagues and it’s not an easy club to play against, and to have an opportunity was a privilege. We thought for the advancement of the South African game, we had to pull it off, not only because of their stature. This was a Category 2 FIFA-sanctioned friendly match where FIFA referees had to officiate. The match had to be sanctioned through SAFA, CAF and FIFA, so it was a high-profile game by any stretch of the imagination, especially for a young brand like us. We were humbled by the experience and it was a learning curve. You could see the difference between the two sides and the weather was not forgiving – the conditions were hard for us during certain segments of the game. But later on, towards the end, the rain stopped and we could play a little bit. Europe has the best standard in football whether we like it or not and, as South Africans, we really do wish to learn as much as we can from them. We came here as a traveling party of 48 people, including players, and Sampdoria brought 25 people in their technical department only. That was a humbling experience and we learned a lot – and they were treating the game like it was a proper Italian Serie A game. It was another level of football I’ve never seen, just to see how they played, from preparations to compliance.
On meaningful transformation to human life
For some of our players, it was the first time traveling outside South Africa because we want to be the club that want to bring meaningful transformation to human life. About 98 percent of our staff, including players, it was their first time flying outside the country. Our players will take this experience and go a long way. A boy like Macbeth Mahlangu comes from kwaNdebele and had to play and defend against top strikers from Sampdoria. It was an overwhelming experience and we could see that the tension was high and it’s normal because this is a big club. And the match was televised live in Italy. We spoke to MultiChoice/DStv (about televising the match in South Africa) and the CEO did not even bother to respond. We had the feed and we were prepared as TS Galaxy to pay so that they could pull the feed and televise the match. Then I begin to wonder, if they are not going to respond to our request, then on whose interest are they working? We had all this set up and we were prepared to give it to them for free and there was no courtesy of a response. The first excuse we received when we were still in South Africa was that our match was happening during the FIFA World Cup and we set it up for Sunday 11 December when there was no World Cup game. I was confused by that. With all the channels they have, we were going to give them the rights for free and we did not want anything from it. We were left puzzled by these kinds of things and I don’t know whether
it was an oversight or what. SABC did respond and they did their best, but they wanted a bigger bandwidth – they wanted to pick up the feed from the internet as opposed to the satellite. Sampdoria set up about 12 cameras for the game, I connected them (SABC) to the broadcasting company of Sampdoria and they started talking until the last minute when the internet bandwidth could not be extended. But at least there was a courtesy of a response from the SABC and we appreciate it. But the South African football public were deprived by not televising the game.
On future trips to Europe
From now going forward, TS Galaxy will take a minimum of one trip (per season) to Europe. We want other clubs to follow our lead. Let’s go and learn from the best in the world and if we can do that as a collective – a group of clubs – then that will add aura that will contribute to the improvement of our game. There are many ways that we can improve our game and we complain about many things, including Bafana Bafana’s performance. Clubs must go embark on these excursions, go to Europe and learn from the best. We also need football education among our coaches. We have a league where anyone can wake up tomorrow and coach a team. This can never be… (the DStv Premiership) is a professional league. I’m going to say this again – we need to have a league where every coach must have a Pro Licence, whether it’s a CAF Pro Licence or UEFA Pro Licence. Why do we allow anyone to sit on the bench? This is a professional league. These are things I think can improve our game and if we don’t do them, we are delaying the improvement of our game. We need to be strict about the quality of coaches we bring into the league. TS Galaxy has two UEFA Pro Licence coaches, other clubs don’t have. It can be CAF Pro Licence, but the UEFA Pro Licence is the highest coaching standard in the world. In Europe, you can’t coach without a UEFA Pro License. Others will say, “If you have a UEFA Pro Licence, then you must win the league”, but it’s not about that. If that’s the case, then all English Premiership coaches must win the league, which is not possible. There are other contributing factors to winning a championship. It’s about the advancement of our game. We are busy admiring Morocco, but we can do much better if we improve our league.