The PSL has returned and the Nedbank Cup finalists, Sundowns and Bloem Celtic, have been confirmed.
It was really great to see a double-header in the PSL again.
I worked for Moroka Swallows some years back and I proposed a curtain raiser as part of our match day.
It was quickly shut down because “the PSL wouldn’t allow it, because it would cut up the pitch”.
I was so disappointed because I had, what I thought back then, were brilliant ideas if they were to be allowed.
Well, after witnessing this past weekend’s Nedbank Cup semifinal double-header, I’ve realised that some of the key positions in football are occupied by tired manne who don’t like the idea of working.
I’m also from the school of thought that everything happens for a reason, and maybe it was also a good idea that the proposal was bounced that time.
Because boy, the workload would have been insane.
We were going to affect the Dobsonville Soweto traffic.
The whole idea was built on the back of my frustration with the Saturday afternoon hood lifestyle.
The streets were far too busy with people, yet nothing was really happening besides the movement that was happening at Tshisa Nyamas, taverns and car washes.
I wanted Swallows to be part of that culture, which meant that the club would need to do something to bring all those people together.
I wanted to change the image of football being a sport just for the typical fans that like to dress up in their homemade costumes and do crazy things for the TV cameras.
We’ve ignored the game’s potential for being a tool for human development because we let talent go away without fighting for it here in Mzansi.
In a recent exchange with a Facebook friend Wesley Coetzee, I expressed my frustration with so many people who benefit from football, yet football doesn’t worry that many of those very same people who are separated from the game when they are done playing the game.
Football doesn’t ask why! Why don’t those people get involved? What’s keeping them away?
Despite all the successes and investments that have been made in football, the majority of our youth continue to play football under similar conditions we did back in the 80s and 90s.
The coaches and owners of grassroots clubs are still people who are either willing and are able to make some crazy sacrifices and a bunch of unemployed or desperate guys around the neighbourhood.
That’s not a good look for the only African country that has hosted a World Cup.
It’s really sad to admit it and to put it so bluntly, but it’s my frustration speaking and this platform allows for such outbursts.
If Jesus forgave Judas, you can live with me crying out in pain because of this game.
I feel like a love-sick fool sometimes for these basic things man.
I’ve been taken aback by so many young players who are even playing in the PSL, who had never played a match at a big stadium before reaching senior level.
I also talk and have written here before about how shocking it is that some of the supposed top young prospects around the country haven’t played a match at an official stadium.
Back in our days, we played curtain raisers that were organised before the main match at Athlone, Hartleyvale and Green Point Stadium.
Those were matches featuring just youth teams, any age, from clubs or schools. It was a way to entertain the fans who arrive early at the stadium.
I’m not sure if it was also their intention to inspire us, because it sure worked.
You have no idea how inspiring it is to play a match at a stadium and then when you walk down the tunnel, you cross paths with one of your heroes.
I really feel for the young guys who go through the best years of being a footballer without playing at a proper stadium with fans there.
The recent Nedbank Cup semis were an example of how we can get it done under the new normal when we can go back to the stadiums again.