Even after 20 years of the supposedly world class Premier Soccer League, there are still deplorable happenings on and off the field that take considerable shine off the PSL’s claim of visionary administration.
The organisation, which launched in 1996, may be proud of being the richest on the continent and one of the top 20 in the world, as well as now home to Africa’s best club in Mamelodi Sundowns. But there are, nevertheless, individual outfits and personalities who still seem to have antiquated ways of operating.
Worse still, they don’t see a problem with their tasteless and unprofessional behaviour, and these include some leading personalities within the PSL.
Orlando Pirates, Safa, Golden Arrows and Maritzburg United are among those who should have received a yellow card for recent “fouls”, while Kaizer Chiefs’ smooth handling of their two-game operation in Durban over the past week again underlined their status as the most advanced club in the land, regardless of results.
Amakhosi’s sound administration is probably the closest thing on the South African club scene to what exists in powerful leagues around the world. It is also certainly the closest to what has been standard practice in local rugby and cricket circles for years, which largely stems from those two sports codes getting a head-start from our country’s demonic political system of the past.
The crazy Muhsin Ertugral-Pirates drama of last Tuesday and Wednesday is, naturally, at the top of the log standings’ for the latest unprofessional behaviours seen in our football. Because it takes two to tango, Ertugral and Pirates are probably both to blame for not having established exactly what they were getting into when they got into bed with each other before the season began.
Ertugral’s touchline behaviour prior to his resignation at the end of that 6-1 hammering by SuperSport United at a soggy Mbombela Stadium just does not work with a lot of South African players.
Some of them just switch off, but Ertugral’s obvious frustration may well have started off the field, because he would have been forced to get used to the peculiar set-up at Pirates where club boss Irvin Khoza is not always hands-on but has “lieutenants” the head coach has to cozy up to.
Pirates fans and others who gave the team good odds to win the championship this season would have been extremely disappointed by last week’s shocking development, considering that the coach who becomes Ertugral’s full-time successor will need time to settle into the job and that could mean more points lost in the process.
Other startling developments included the way Safa spokesman Dominic Chimhavi misled several journalists about a story being “exclusive” to them at Neil Tovey’s house; the ejection of a journalist from an Arrows training session because they just did not like his way of operating; and Maritzburg’s quick claiming of a conspiracy every time a player makes a bad mistake in a negative result, the latest being goalkeeper Virgil Vries’ blunder in the 2-2 draw against Arrows.
Let’s not forget that Arrows don’t even have an official, full-time spokesman to deal with journos, who have to rely on the availability of the club’s approachable coach, Clinton Larsen, and recently-hired general manager, Gordon Masondo, for telephonic updates about the team.
The recent developments combined, kind of underlines the fact that some football entities around the country won’t grow stronger or bigger now or in the future. They will continue to be sporting dwarfs to the likes of Chiefs and Sundowns, who have a top-notch administration and major financial power respectively, because they just don’t operate in terms of international best practice.
@extrastrongsa
The Star