TO DURBAN.....AGAIN

The Telkom Knockout Final venue in South Africa was not met with the usual “Durban again” social media outpouring of misgivings and virtual emotional tweeting, status updating and instagraming that comes with previous announcements. I put this down to the small fact that not many of the social media intellects know where Princess Magogo Stadium is. The location of the township where upon said stadium is also not known to those who do not get to watch Uzalo on SABC 1. These are of course the middle class citizens who get watch everything on Explora and such other devices. Kwamashu is indeed in Durban and therefore meaning that another cup final is going to Durban, as per the level headed people at the plush offices of the Premier Soccer League.

For years we have been told that the criteria to getting to the decision of where a particular final will be played out is that all interested municipalities put in a bid and the most appealing of these will the nod from the league. The two teams that are in the final are consulted, apparently, and then a decision is made. The word apparently is not just thrown in there dear reader. It just seems rather strange that a team that does fill a 5000 seater stadium would want to move it`s small group of followers more than 600 kilometers towards India for trophy final. Bidvest Wits and Bloemfontein Celtic have wonderful support, it has to be said. However it`s a wonderfully small support. Don`t let the loud singing fool you, only the minority turn up for those away games. So why would Bloemfontein Celtic and Bidvest Wits agree to play a big final in a foreign province that involves a lot of travelling for their beloved fans who can and will bring atmosphere to this Telkom Knockout final. Why?

The Etekwini(that`s the politically correct name for Durban) municipality seems to be the one that submits the best bids year in and year out, so I think that part of the criteria should really be done away with unless we just say that Durban is the official ‘Finals’ venue. The Cape Town municipality has long shown that it has no care whatsoever for the nationally loved sport of football. They also noticed the empty stadiums at 99.99% of the league games. The 0.01% is taken up by the derby. Cape Town is the only one that could maybe compete with Durban as the city is also tourism orientated. Putting Polokwane up against Durban for a bidding competition that weighs heavily on expertise in tourism is just like putting that guy who was knocked down in 6 seconds in the ring with Floyd Mayweather…..

So the two major pillars of the criteria to making the decision of where to take a final have little holes in them. I have also heard that the stadium`s ability to handle those Very Important People is also of immense importance. The stadium has to have adequate hospitality facilities so that those in charge can sell off ninety minutes of football at mind boggling prices. A seat in the hospitality suites can set you back a measly R5995 when Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are on the pitch. Now let us not talk about the hospitality suites at the Princess Magogo stadium and just say I do not a lot of VIPs making their way there. Moreover Uzalo has made us believe that those very expensive automobiles are stolen pretty quickly by the likes of Mastermind.  So the hospitality suites angle falls by the wayside, as far as I`m concerned. So why, oh why did the stakeholders to the final take it to Princess Magogo? The acting CEO of the PSL is from those parts, or at least her club is but apparently she has very little say in such matters. The president is also of KZN origin but I do seriously doubt he would dip his fingers in that cookie jar. Surely it`s way too small for his hands, no matter how greasy they might be.

Could someone be benefitting from throwing every other final in the direction of Durban? Did Shaka Zulu leave behind instructions that finals were to be held in Durban or else all the maidens from all the other tribes in South Africa would be collected and married off to Zulu men?

Whatever the reason, someday somehow somewhere someone needs to explain why we keep having to travel towards India for finals.