Soccer bodies still bickering like children

Since we have been in lockdown, I have been spending more time than I would normally do with my kids – one is four and the other is two-and-a-half. I have since been unofficially appointed as a peacekeeper between the two in their incessant fights over toys. If I counted how many times in one day there was a feud, I would run out of fingers and toes.

But I guess it is natural, or so I have been told. The younger one in some strange way wants to be more dominant all the time and demands the other one’s toys, abandoning his own.

That starts a lot of fights which almost all the time ends with either of them screaming his lungs out. I even joked that if they were to catch the Covid-19 virus – heaven forbid – it would not survive on their lungs because they are constantly cleaned whenever they scream and cry.

The only time they are quiet is when they are working together but unfortunately, they are almost always up to no good when they get along, and you should be very worried once they stop squabbling.

Before I bore you to death with my domestic roles, let me tell you how this connects with what I want to discuss today. It is for this reason that I do not envy the Minister of Sport, Nathi Mthethwa, who has to play the role I play in this house to stop the feuding – which I believe is unnecessary – between Safa and the PSL.

The bickering between the two most important football organizations in the country reared its ugly head when they could not find common ground on the return of football. After Mthethwa @SbongsKaDonga had told them to go and work together a few weeks ago, we were all happy when the two organizations managed to come together and came up with a biologically-proven health plan for the return to play. So much so that even Fifa said it was the best plan they had seen.

This showed how great things could be if the two worked well together just like they did in putting together that plan, and our football would benefit greatly. But before long, the two were back to their old ways – and fighting again.

This time the bone of contention was who between Safa’s Dr Thulani Ngwenya and the PSL’s Michael Murphy, would be responsible for the implementation of the plan. This has reportedly led to the delays in the announcement of the resumption dates and has kprevented some teams from going back to training.

I listened to Dr Ngwenya this week on SAFM saying Safa had been asked by government how some teams had gone back to training without their notification. The normal procedure would be for Safa to alert government that “Team C” had complied with all the requirements and ready to start training again. But that has not been happening because the two – like kids – cannot amicably decide who ensures safety measures are adhered to.