This season’s PSL was not without any drama as it came to a close.
It wasn’t the greatest, statistically, but it was still nerve-wrecking if you are a fan of one of the two teams that were fighting for the league championship or if your team was fighting for survival.
It took just 59 points for Mamelodi Sundowns to win the league title, 59 points bafethu. That’s 59 points from a possible 90.
They won only 16 matches, guys, to win a whole 15-team league championship, that’s winning just over 50 percent of their matches.
I’m not here to discredit the guys for their efforts, it’s not easy out there, but nobody wants a winner who only wins half of their matches.
Fifty percent used to be the minimum pass rate back in my days, that’s back in the 90s when school was still the place where young people were pushed to their potential.
Nobody celebrated getting a 5/10 mark back then, even for a spot test my friend.
I’d like to imagine that’s the case today despite Minister Angie Motshekga dropping the pass mark to the 30-whatever percent it is nowadays.
No guys, we don’t have to drop our standards in football too.
CHALLENGED: Orlando Pirates pushed Sundowns all the way. Photo: Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix.
I personally just can’t accept this kind of situation, I don’t know about you.
And I will not sit here and say ‘come on guys, let’s go and pack the stadiums and watch champions that win half their matches’.
We deserve more than that, it costs us way too much money and time to end up with a 50 percent champion.
I can already tell you that PSL Chairman Irvin Khoza will wax lyrical about “the unpredictability” of the league and cup competitions in the PSL in his speech at the 2019 PSL Awards this weekend.
The suits seated in the front rows will clap hands, but honestly, they shouldn’t clap hands because it hasn’t been a great.
They are not the ones exposed to the basics of the game, because when they attend games they go straight to the stadium suites where they network and have drinks flowing more than actually being involved in the blow-by-blow action of the game.
The people that really matter are the people that pack the stadiums, but this week will be all about the glitz and glam of the local game in Durban as the PSL takes over the city for the Nedbank Cup final and PSL Awards.
WAX LYRICAL: Irvin Khoza. Photo: Sydney Mahlangu/Backpagepix.
Do you now see why the Nedbank Cup final didn’t go to the Free State?
You now see what it’s all about neh?
Durban is the party capital papa and the suits want to have a lekker jol.
It would be nice if the suits actually exchanged ideas about how to fill up the stadiums and improve fan experience at live matches.
We will be hearing the usual about the TV broadcasting and how it has “improved the quality of the product”.
What product?
Football is played on the field not on TV bra, you can’t say a product has improved just because it’s on TV, yet we can’t even get a leading goalscorer to score 15 goals let alone crack the 20 goal mark on the field.
I guess the sponsors are happier to see their logos displayed on TV which means “more eyes” see their nice logos than to be involved with the football.