WeeklySA_AdminTIMING: Fans express concerns at evening games citing lack of transport, crime, loadshedding
By Ali Mphaki
Curiously amusing is to learn the first football match played under floodlights was way back on October 4, 1878, with a “portable engine” behind each post, four lights installed on wooden “stages” 30 feet high offering a total output of 8, 000 candlepower.
This was the scene in Sheffield, when the “Blues” played the “Reds” in an exhibition match. “….and so that’s why 12,000 people paid sixpence each to watch the game, and as many more again snuck in under the cover of darkness without paying,’ observed The Independent.
Of the football on offer, however, The Times reported the next day that “the brilliancy of the light dazzled the players and sometimes caused strange blunders”.
Those days are happily gone… There are competing reasons why matches are played at night; broadcasting rights, pictures are cute, the weather is cool, and what some sports psychologists say – players were less likely to commit mistakes at night than when they play in the afternoon.
Soberingly, night games help prevent fans from getting day drunk. The magic spell of night games is undeniable with the DStv Premiership matches played at night so far “miraculously” been spared the hauting spectre of loadshedding, save for one or two incidents when the lights went out during a match or wouldnt switch on at the start of a match.
In the SA context, stadiums may be lit but the neighbourhood in complete darkness.
When the referee blows the final whistle for most die-hard fans a scramble for transport, a lift (if lucky) or a walk back home ensues, the latter made more menacing by the cover of darkness, while the players are transported in a luxury bus back to camp as officials slip into their shiny German sedans to go wherever.
Die-hard fans especially of pensionable age are asking how are they supposed to support their teams with all the attendant challenges of the night, including the rampant crime in the country. Media Relations Manager at Premier Soccer League Fhatuwani Mpfuni denies the insinuation and says “its a 50/50 split between night and afternoon matches”.
This despite the fact that in this coming week only three of the 10 scheduled DStv Premiership games wil be played at daylight. Seven of the matches will be played at night or early evening.
Take Kaizer Chiefs for instance.Amakhosi are scheduled to play all their next six matches at night. The only time we will see them in daylight is when they take on arch-rivals Orlando Pirates in November. Moroka Swallows fans have not been spared the night-shift either, with only one game out of their next six outings to be played under the glare of sunshine.
SuperSport United have all their next five games at night. Its more of the same for Mamelodi Sundowns – only one in their three or so next games until September 26 will be played at daytime. Mpfuni said by staging matches at night there were several consderations to be made which include maximizing crowd attendance by starting games after normal working hours, club preferences etc.
Would you rather have your teenage boy not yet home by 10pm midweek? “Some clubs prefer to play their games at night…its a balancing act.
Much as we take all other factors into consideration, would you rather have stadiums empty because most of the people are at work?,” retorted Mpfuni.
He further explained the seeming loadshedding “exemption” to ensure constant uninterrupted power supply during the matches as enjoyed by the PSL clubs was thanks to the hosting team’s arrangements with the local electricity supplier and or use generators.
