Football in SA needs reboot — Hunt

Hugely respected SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt believes football in South Africa desperately needs a reboot to return the game to where it was.

A lot has been said about the standard of football in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the contributing factors.

Speaking to the media during SuperSport’s Players’ Awards ceremony on Monday, former Bidvest Wits and Kaizer Chiefs coach Hunt joined the debate and said a lot was not being done right in the PSL.

Hunt, the coach when Wits’ DStv Premiership franchise was sold in 2020, said a factor such as the buying and selling of club statuses needed a serious look as it had contributed to the demise of the beautiful game.

“I think football in SA needs a reboot from everything,” Hunt said.

“From playing squads being too big to [clubs] having to stay at one ground.

“It needs a reboot.”

In the past few years, SA football has witnessed the demise of other major or historically important clubs such as Bloemfontein Celtic and Platinum Stars.

Celtic were sold to Royal AM; 102-year-old Wits became Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM), who soon encountered financial difficulties in the top flight and sold the team on to Marumo Gallants six months later.

Gallants, who became a nomadic team, have just been relegated to the Motsepe Foundation Championship.

Hunt described the sale of Wits, which he steered to their only league title in 2016-17, as something that weakened the PSL.

The sale of Celtic did not just mean the death of football in the Free State, but also wiped out the rich history related to the club and left its supporter base stranded.

“This name-change thing as well, you cannot be doing it.

“If you buy a franchise, you must stay there and you must [keep] whatever name [of the franchise] is there,” Hunt said.

“If it’s Celtic, you can’t become Royal AM, you need to stay as Celtic.

“If you are Wits, you must remain Wits University because people associate themselves with names, brands, and when you start changing ...

“I mean where do Gallants play? You don’t know where they play and where they come from.

“I think it needs a big reboot. Let’s get solutions, let’s find a way, and let’s put our heads together. ”—