Tsamaya

This week’s soccer buzz

SuperSport's TV panel discussing the 2018 World Cup draw at the Kremlin consisted of 1998 and 2002 World Cup player Benni McCarthy, 2010 World Cup assistant coach Pitso Mosimane and 2018 World Cup failed qualifier Dean Furman. The conspiracy theorists might have had a field day. Did Furman make Bafana fail because he had a contract with SuperSport, and we don't mean his club? Perhaps even Vladimir Putin had a role in this? Was it just a rehearsal for Oh Schucks .... It's Schuster!? What a head-spinner.

South African football never runs short of opportunists in a time of agony. After some incredibly poor results in PSL matches last week, Tsamaya was flooded with requests from former marksmen. Most offered to teach a thing or two to the blunt as back of the knife strikers. Daniel Mudau, Mark Williams, Philemon Masinga and Jerry Skhosana were among those leading the chorus, urging PSL teams to hire them to sharpen their striking departments. “We need people like me, and I’m not saying I’m the best, but we also have people like Phil [Masinga],” thundered an ever-ready Legs of Thunder. Talk is the cheapest thing around.

Cape Town City got another reminder that football is the least of the City of Cape Town's worries. The Citizens should have been hosting Maritzburg United on Tuesday but due to their home ground, the Cape Town Stadium, hosting the second leg of the World Rugby Sevens series, they have been forced to move their home game to the Princess Magogo Stadium. That’s 1 641km from the Mother City but no maternal care is shown to Cape Town’s football clubs when the rugby first-born muscles into town.

This struck a serious nerve with City coach and Hanover Park’s finest Benni McCarthy, who penned a heartfelt open letter to express how his club has been forced into exile. “Football has been sold lies in Cape Town. When there is a private wedding and rugby competition, the stadiums are ready,” wrote the pained McCarthy, adding “Football people, although an overwhelming majority in this country, do not seem to count as much in Cape Town.” Cape Town’s never been in the 18-area, that’s why they haven’t hosted a cup final in 14 years. At some stage they talked about demolishing the venue.