Tough action needed to stop pitch invasions
IT WAS a little over a decade ago when a drunken rugby fan shocked the sporting world by tackling Irish referee Dave McHugh during a Tri-Nations match between the Springboks and the All Blacks at Durban’s Kings Park Stadium.
The unrepentant fan — Piet van Zyl — was later quoted as saying he decided to literally take matters into his own hands when McHugh’s officiating suggested that he’d “closed one eye and ceased to see the Springboks” during the encounter.
McHugh suffered a dislocated shoulder and had to be replaced by the touch judge after a tackle that some commentators colourfully described as something akin to a stampede.
Images of Van Zyl — with his stomach threatening to spill out of his ill-fitting Springbok jersey as he was hauled off the pitch by two dark-suited security officials — remain fresh in my mind to this day.
And for his trouble, Van Zyl has featured in a host of lists compiled by newspapers and magazines around the world that include the world’s worst sports fans, world’s craziest sports fans, and top 20 drunken fans, among others.
But, pertinently, Van Zyl was fined and then banned from attending rugby matches in SA for life.
You may well wonder just where in the blazes I am going with all this.
Well, it seems Durban stadiums have a penchant for attracting the craziest fans, because a referee was assaulted by a vuvuzela-wielding supporter during a premiership soccer match between Kaizer Chiefs and Golden Arrows at Moses Mabhida Stadium at the weekend.
For those who don’t know, the stadium is directly across the street from Kings Park and it is remarkable that both venues are now synonymous with acts of hooliganism against referees.
In this latest attack, the man ran onto the pitch and assaulted referee Lwandile Mfiki with a green plastic vuvuzela that had Chiefs colours attached to it.
To his credit, Mfiki stood his ground, and bobbed and weaved while his assailant tried to pick a spot on his clean-shaven head.
Clueless Premier Soccer League (PSL) security woke up from their usual slumber moments later and tackled the man before he could land the telling blow he was trying to execute. Reports say the man was arrested and charged with assault, then released on bail.
Many questions spring to mind, but one of the most obvious is: how did the man manage to get to Mfiki so easily when there were so many security stewards present?
PSL security personnel are some of the most pathetic on the face of the earth and have been known to watch the game rather than do the job they were hired to do — watch the supporters.
More often than not, when skirmishes break out among supporters the security will have their backs turned to the stands, deliriously cheering on the teams on the pitch.
Then there is the small matter of the PSL disciplinary committee. Now this body has been doing a huge disservice to the game over the past few months and the fact that there is a huge backlog of cases yet to be attended to sums up the rot in Parktown.
Offences that were committed many moons ago have yet to be heard and you have to wonder just what Ntsietso Mofokeng — the supposed head of legal matters — does to while away the boredom during office hours.
The good advocate was appointed in September 2011 but has spent the past 19 months displaying her lack of people skills to journalists who have had the audacity to query the growing pile of cases.
Small wonder then that former PSL prosecutor Zola Majavu quietly returned to the PSL a few days ago and is the new chairman of the league’s disciplinary committee.
Hell, numerous fans have thrown objects at coaches in the glare of television cameras over the years but never had anything to worry about.
And given the obvious malaise, Mfiki’s vuvuzela-waving assailant can’t be losing too much sleep after his own televised assault because, unlike Van Zyl, he’ll be free to go to any stadium this weekend without a care in the world.