Organisers call on Chiefs to name coach
It is not only Kaizer Chiefs supporters who wish their team would hurry up and announce their new coach.
The organisers of the Shell Helix Ultra Cup also feel it could boost match ticket sales if Amakhosi were to let the nation know who would next man their dugout. Stuart Baxter (left) has been strongly linked with a return to the Amakhosi hot seat, but nothing has been announced yet at Naturena.
Around 10 000 tickets have been sold for the game set for July 21 at the FNB Stadium and the stadium management’s newly appointed managing director Bertie Grobbelaar joked that if Chiefs were to name their new man they were bound to sell more tickets.
“There is interest and we have held activations in both Johannesburg and Pretoria. But the big issue is that if the new Chiefs coach is announced, I think it will heighten anticipation for the game. The teams are in camp but we have negotiated with them for their players to attend some of the events leading up to the match,” said Grobbelaar.
There is a possibility the match may grow into something even bigger in the coming years with some speculating it will be a fourteam tournament taking the format of the defunct Telkom Charity Cup and Grobbelaar didn’t dismiss the thought.
“We will see how it develops. Our aim is to stay relevant and to provide a product the fans want. For now we have a three-year contract and we will see how it goes,” he said.
Grobbelaar also revealed that with the Carling Black Label Cup suspended this year due to the World Cup, they had to fill the gap.
“The Carling Black Label Cup is not happening this year and we decided to make an effort to bring the game to the fans in that period of time. There is also a need for clubs to have some preparatory games ahead of the new season. That was the basis for the initial idea.” The odds are stacked against Colombia going into this evening’s clash against England at the Otkrytiye Arena.
This will be the fourth meeting between the sides and Colombia are yet to clinch their first victory against England.
The Three Lions have won two and drawn one so far, winning their previous encounter at World Cups, back in 1998 when they won 2-0 in the group stages.
The sides also met each other in a friendly in May 2005 when England picked up a 3-2 victory with a hat-trick from Michael Owen.
Colombian star James Rodriguez will reportedly start from the bench which should be a major boost for England who are worth backing to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Los Cafeteros generally struggle badly to create anything up front without James on the pitch. I therefore think England will edge this one by the odd goal.