Super Cup concept shot down in flames

Sy Lerman

It came like a bolt out of the blue in a statement by Safa president Danny Jordaan after the recent special congress of South African football’s controlling body.

But the PSL, who would be the prime contributors to stage a new Safa-controlled Super Cup event on the South African football calendar, have suggested the proposal for the tournament that would include the professional organisation’s various competition winners, the NFD champions and the Motsepe League winners, is no more than “pie in the sky”.

“It’s a commendable idea,” said one leading PSL official. “But where do you fit this proposed innovation into a year’s programme that is already embarrassingly overcrowded with local tournaments and Fifa and Caf events?

“From a practical point of view I think the proposal is simply beyond the realms of possibility.”

Jordaan said the Super Cup idea originated from the Safa delegation’s recent fact-finding visit to Spain where a successful early-season event is staged between the League champions and the country’s Cup winners – with a similar pre-season match in England as well.

The difference here, of course, is that the PSL already conducts four tournaments of their own – in addition to the quasi Black Label Challenge between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs – and a Super Cup with six teams instead of two is an entirely different proposition from the time factor point of view.

Apparently when the Super Cup proposal was raised at the Safa congress, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza, who automatically serves as one of the Safa vice-presidents, raised no objections.

But PSL officials have suggested Khoza was simply being “diplomatic” and if the Super Cup issue was extended beyond the speculation and publicity point, the professional league would have no qualms about putting their foot down and raising the apparently unsolvable time factor.