It is about time!
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, finally made a call to further relax the COVID-19 restrictions and allow the supporters back to the stadium after a two-year hiatus. This happened on the back of massive pressure from different sectors as supporters were getting increasingly frustrated by the new ‘normal’ of watching their football teams on television rather than making the trips to the match venues.
It has been far too long, especially considering the fact that rugby and cricket supporters had been back to the match venues, enjoying their favourite sport, while the football fanatics continued to watch the games through the television cameras’ lens. While we are grateful to finally have the supporters back at the stadium, it would be foolhardy for us to carry on as if nothing happened. Thank you, our government, for allowing sanity to prevail by letting us back into the stadiums, but we still need to find out why it took so long? We can’t just focus on the good news without getting proper reasons as to why football was further down the pecking order in terms of allowing the supporters back. That question is more important when you look at the fact that football is the number one sport in the country. It makes no sense at all that we are among the last to get granted permission to attend games.
While we acknowledge the logistical nightmare that comes with putting football matches together, as well as the danger posed by large groups of people when it comes to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, we are not blind to the fact that it took forever for us to be allowed back into our match venues. We were literally robbed two years of our lives by COVID19 and the last thing we needed was for our government to add to our suffering because the president’s decision should have come earlier. We desperately needed to get back, with many pointing fingers at both the DStv Premiership and South African Football Association’s leadership. In fact, conspiracy theorists even had it that it was because of the ‘ongoing fights between the two organizations’ that the football supporters continued to be left out in the cold. Some even suggested that the delay was the League’s ploy, together with their primary sponsors, DStv, to get more people to buy decoders and therefore make business for the sponsors. All of this happened simply because there was no official word from the government and therefore people, true to their nature, will always jump to their own conclusions whenever things are left open to interpretation.
It was until South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, the honorable Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa, came out in public to ask for patience from football supporters and promised that there was hope of good news that would put a smile on their faces. The Minster also shed light on who, where and how the decision to allow the supporters back to the stadium would come about. “This thing of not allowing people to the stadiums, it is not SAFA nor PSL that takes decisions, it is government that gets recommendations from health specialists. So, we wait for them to advise. So, we ask for patience as we are all guided by the health committee – SAFA or PSL cannot take decisions by themselves. We are hopeful, as the country is slowly opening up as the numbers are declining. We will wait for the Command Council to sit and discuss, then advise us. They are set to meet next week,” said Minister Mthethwa, speaking at the
Phansi Museum in Durban, at the time.
If this doesn’t put any conspiracy theory that was held against the PSL, sponsors or SAFA, to bed, then nothing will. What became clear from the Minister’s address was that the League and SAFA should never be held accountable for the decision that led to football supporters feeling hard done by when their rugby and cricket counterparts were allowed to watch and enjoy their games at the stadium while they could only watch the favourite sport on television. Gone are those days now and we are back to the way things should always be. We can finally breathe again! Now that the ‘segregation’ is over, the baton has now been passed to us as football supporters. It is time for us to play our part by delivering on our end of the bargain. It will be pointless to find out that we were just making noise and applying pressure to the powers that be just because we could. It would be a huge egg on our face if we failed to deliver on our responsibility of ensuring that we play by the rules, get vaccinated and arrive at the stadium on time so that all the preentry formalities can be done well ahead of the game so that there will be no delays because we are running late. It is about time we enjoy the Beautiful Game in the stands, creating a conducive atmosphere for our teams! Football without supporters is not complete and that was so evident in the period of our absence because nothing, including social media, beats bums on seats, with the vuvuzelas and amagwijo spurring the players on. They’ve missed us and we’ve missed them so much!
Let us encourage those who have not vaccinated but want to go to the stadium to do the right thing, as the League’s chairman, Dr Irvin Khoza, has ironed out in his address last week. Let us play our part and ensure that no one will point a finger at us or feel vindicated for the delay in getting us back to the match venues. We are a responsible bunch that needs to get our spirits up after over two years of being starved of match attendance. Let this important decision not come back to haunt the government, SAFA and the League because of our failure to comply. Let this also not be an opportunity for this virus to hit the football fraternity through our negligence and irresponsibility, which will give credence to those who saw nothing wrong with us waiting for so long to finally get the green light to attend games. Let us show everyone out there that we are responsible, know what to do and how to conduct ourselves. The sooner we get to grips with the new system of getting into the stadium and master it, the better for all of us.
This is also great news for the small business owners who sell food, drinks and merchandise at the stadiums to keep the fires burning at their homes. These are some of the people who have been hardest hit by this pandemic and some of them may never recover after such a long time. The security guards will also be able to put food on the table, while teams, especially those who lack sponsorship, will also get some much-needed cash injection through gate-takings. Allowing supporters back to the stadium isn’t just about the 90 minutes on the field, it goes way beyond that. Happy days are back!
Cheers, VeeJay