Apathy hangs over SA soccer showpiece

Low turn-out expected for cup final

SPONSORS and organisers have pulled out all the stops to attract a decent crowd at today’s Nedbank Cup final, a first in the city in over 10 years.

However, the Weekend Argus understands that the tickets were slow off the shelves, with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) even selling them for a buy- one- for- two deal this week. In addition, the sponsors gave 10 000 tickets away. The PSL would not say how many tickets were sold by yesterday evening.

Analysts and fans expect a low turn-out at the Cape Town Stadium as the fixture is on the same day as the Manchester United-Chelsea FA Cup final.

The popular FA Cup final kicks off at 6.15pm, and the Nedbank Cup final at 7pm.

PSL spokesperson Lux September said the planning by the organisers was spot-on.

When told about Capetonians’ preference for English Premier League action over a PSL match September said: “We can’t plan around Europeans. I don’t think they look at what Africans are doing. This is why African leagues are in decline.”

He would not say how many tickets were sold and would not divulge how the organisers planned for the event.

Asked whether they could have avoided the date coincid- ing with Britain’s FA cup, Tobie Badenhorst, Nedbank head of Group sponsorships and cause marketing, said the 2018 Nedbank Cup final venue was announced on March 15, while the FA confirmed its cup final on April 24.

He added that the venue, date and time were submitted in a priority meeting with police.

“It was therefore not possible to change the kick-off time of the Nedbank Cup final, and furthermore we firmly believe in our product and to enable South Africans to support their local soccer teams,” Badenhorst said.

“It is the first time since Nedbank’s sponsorship of the Nedbank Cup in 2008 that we’ll be staging the Nedbank Cup final in Cape Town, as fans have been pleading both the PSL and its sponsors to stage domestic Cup finals in the Mother City.”

He said Nedbank trusted that Capetonians would come out in their numbers to sup- port South African football.

Journalist Lunga Adams described the organisation of the cup final as “a love story gone wrong”.

He said there had been much fanfare around the announcement of Cape Town Stadium as host to the final.

“But the fact that the game has been scheduled for 7pm in a region where half of the population are Manchester United fans and there is a FA Cup final involving the Red Devils at the same time, plus the massive midweek friendly between Mamelodi Sundowns and Barcelona, means it must have been a nightmarish task trying to market this game.

“To make it worse, the two teams enjoy no kind of support whatsoever in Cape Town. One feels for the two camps, as it now seems they are only honouring a fixture rather than playing in a cup final.

“One has to question the timing of the Sundowns-Barça match, especially in light of Downs saying if they had not secured it now they probably would have had to wait a very long time to get Barcelona to South Africa again.”

He said the PSL has flouted its own rules on playing high-profile friendlies while the season was under way and showed disregard to the sponsors (Nedbank) as well as the two finalists. Adams said there was clearly a case of the powerful flexing their muscles.

‘The two teams

Cape region’