SEDIBENG.- With President Cyril Ramaphosa expected to address the nation on Sunday, sports people hope he will ease some of lockdown regulations to allow sports to resume. Sports people especially athletes are idling and they can’t wait to return onto the field after three weeks on the sideline.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster Sport, some sports administrators and athletes said other gatherings are allowed but sports people are always suffering. They told Sedibeng Ster Sport that it is almost two years with sport suffering due to the lockdown.
“Some of us don’t even know which right age group is to play under certain divisions because of lockdown. This has affected the performance of many athletes especially the older age group. It is sad because for the past two years some athletes didn’t have the opportunity to play under certain age groups. You must know that in football there is something called underage but unfortunately it affects most of players. Some of them missed the opportunity to play under the junior national teams and this can be a permanent damage in their football career,” said a football administrator who didn’t want t be named.
Another football administrator who is well known told Sedibeng Ster Sport that most of the teams are considering selling their status especially those ABC Motsepe and SAB League teams because this situation. For example, in 2019/2020 season the was no relegation in all SAFA leagues but at the end of the last season four or five teams had to be relegated from all the leagues.
“This is really hard for all of us who been in football for the better part of our lives but now we are no longer coping to say the least. It is hard for us because for the past two years our season is not normal with the league divided into streams. We are no longer coping, and the standard of football is also going down. The future of our football now is these tournaments because our players have lost interest in playing the league. We don’t blame them because we as club bosses we are also frustrated. At the weekend I was driving around and there were tournaments playing all over the region. Please don’t misunderstood me, I don’t blame those tournament organisers because our players want to play. Even if we say as SAFA teams we don’t play, our boys are all over playing. Look, even though this is wrong some of us are happy that our players get game time even though it is risky,” said a club boss.
