The buck stops with fans ... finish en klaar

Calls for sterner or more stringent punishment to be meted out to teams whose fans rioted and damaged stadia and property intensified this week.

This after idiots who masqueraded as Kaizer Chiefs fans invaded the pitch, chasing the players and later assaulting the security guards and damaging television camera equipment while others looted and set the stadium chairs on fire.

All this because Chiefs had lost to Free State Stars. I say they are masqueraders because real fans would never react in such a shameful manner when their team lose. They would know that in a cup game one has to lose. And with the Amakhosi manage- ment having technically fired Steve Komphela just a week earlier when they said in a statement they would be making wholesale changes at the end of the season, one would have hoped the fans would stop their protests over the coach whom they accused of running the team aground.

Anyway, it was rather interesting to hear varying views. Some went as far as to blame the Premier Soccer League structure which they said renders it unable to deal effectively with such matters.

I heard one radio presenter saying having Irvin Khoza as chairman is the problem because he is also chairman of one of the clubs and so he is unable to properly police the clubs.

Sibongiseni Gumbi

I was stunned. I have never before heard this on an industry board chaired by people who have no interest in the said industry.

His issue was based on the fact that the PSL took over a year to finalise the case after Khoza’s club Orlando Pirates’ fans had rioted, invaded the pitch and damaged television equipment in February last year.

What left many unhappy was that when Kaizer Chiefs’ fans threw missiles on to the pitch earlier this month the club were handed their punishment just a week later.

But I think this is an unfair view. The Pirates case was a little more complicated and was not as straightforward as Chiefs’. The incidents at Loftus Versfeld needed a thorough investigation before a case could be brought up.

Some believe that ordering the club to play one game without fans was not punishment enough. Others complained that showing the very same game on TV defeated the purpose of the order. But one can’t feel that banning the fans for more than one game would be seriously costly as the PSL is already struggling to get fans to stadiums.

And banning it on TV would be good punishment for the fans but with TV bringing in more money to the game than the fans, it becomes tricky.

What the PSL needs is to ensure clubs provide proper security for all matches.

That Chiefs match should have been treated as a Category A match as there had always been a feeling that violence might break out.

There were whispers of fans protesting against Komphela all week leading up to the match but I don’t think these were taken seriously enough.

But after all is said and done, it is us as football fans who need to own up to this. It starts and is started by us and can only stop or be stopped by us.