WeeklySA_AdminAFRICA RISING: Great expectations that Motsepe will bring new life to ‘sleepy’ CAF
By Molefi Mika
I SALUTE you dear reader in our very first sports column as we ponder daily about whether these trying times caused by the deadly Covid-19 virus will ever end.
At the moment a sport like soccer, which at times is also referred to as the “Sport of Billions”, is at a different place. Things worldwide are sadly different from what they used to be in the past.
Practically speaking, lately it does not even sound right to call football a “Sport of Billions”. The reason is that while the game used to attract millions of spectators as well as to generate billions of dollars through ticket sales and sponsorships, today it is currently and largely played before empty stands at stadiums. And all this because of the health devastation the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked.
The Olympics, without doubt the world’s largest multi-sport festival, suffered their first postponement in 2020 after nearly 77 years since 1944. The Olympics have since been rescheduled for Tokyo, Japan, this year.
But the hosting country has since announced a ban on international spectators due to fears and risks of widespread virus transmission. The ban is in keeping with the World Health Organisation (WHO) health protocols, bearing in mind that the games tend to attract huge crowds.
History reminds us that ever since the staging of the “Modern Summer Olympics” in 1896, there had never been a postponement of these the Games except for three cancellations.
The First World War between 1914 and 1918 caused the cancellation of the 1916 Olympics; theSecond World War of 1939-1945 put paid to the Olympics billed for the years 1940 and 1944. Clearly, the prospect of watching the Olympics with few if no spectators at all is also likely to affect TV viewing numbers worldwide, this considering that crowds at stadiums help to build and create electric atmosphere that makes athletes to perform with some added exuberance. It’s an open secret that this is one of the main reasons why companies jostle for a slot in such events in a bid to offer sponsorships worth millions of dollars.
On the home-front, it can’t be viewed as a sin to compliment the National Soccer League (NSL) hierarchy – the custodians of the more than billion-rand sponsored Premier Soccer League (PSL) in its efforts to keep the home fires burning during these trying times, so to speak. Much against doubts, the NSL committed itself to returning football action to our stadiums, mindful of the risk of possibly aggravating the spread of the pandemic, by organising football action around August in 2020. This, therefore, required that the PSL bosses and their counterparts in the mother-body – Safa (South African Football Association) – to speak with one voice to convince the government to approve the initiative.
Agreeing to play in a bio-bubble certainly achieved commendable results such that the idea was later copied by other sporting codes in the country. As the phrase goes, the rest is history. The new norm, regrettably, is that we now watch our sports, in particular soccer, beamed on TV from venues where crowds are currently not allowed.
However, it must be mentioned that the sterling job by the NSL in partnership with Safa has helped to lower the anxiety and stress levels that have besieged us in the past months. Hopefully, without much waiting, we will also be telling the world that crowds are about to be invited back to our stadiums, just like in other parts of Europe, provided safety measures or protocols are given priority in the best interest of our athletes.
Still on football, congratulations to Mamelodi Sundowns president, Dr Patrice Motsepe. Since Motsepe was voted president of CAF (Confederation of African Football unopposed recently, there is much optimism about the future prospects forthe continental football as he prepares to steer the game to greater heights.
Good news, indeed, if we consider that, like Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, South Africa was a founding member of CAF since 1957, but was later booted out of the fold because of its apartheid policies under the National Party rule. The country was later reinstated in 1992 at the time when the apartheid minority government was beginning to earnestly engage with the liberation movements for a democratic dispensation.
Motsepe, a billionaire and a man who always strike one as a person of his word, no doubt has the potential of bringing change to the ever sleepy CAF organisation. In him we have a leader capable of demonstrating to the world why Africa is regarded as one of the main sources of great soccer stars in the world, a feat that should have been consistently prioritised by the former CAF leaders all with the help of massive TV coverage.
