Gone are the days when everyone in the family, young and old, would watch the game on television together on Saturdays or Sundays,  long before the television had a remote control.

Recently,  sopies have taken over.

The question is what went wrong for families to stop watching live soccer matches together? Is it is something that has to do with the standard of South African football or the demands of life? You be the judge!  Yours truly TOUCHLINE use to watched live soccer matches on television with my parents, brothers and sisters. The whole family supported Kaizer Chiefs and it was such a great atmosphere especially when Kaizer Chiefs played against Orlando Pirates which are their bitter rivals.

TOUCHLINE doubts that today it is still the case between these two Soweto giants taking into consideration that these two teams recently even share sponsorships apart from their supporters sharing the same stand. I still remember like yesterday, when as a family we watched Kaizer Chiefs play against Orlando Pirates in the 1980s, where Jomo Sono and Ace Ntsoelengoe were the stars of these two teams.

I was very young but I still remember “Ace” trying to do his tricks on Jomo Sono, much delighted of the whole family, but you could see there was too much respect between these two great soccer players. They tried very hard to avoid each other on the field of play.

Back to my initial topic, one of the memorable games I remember watching together as a family was South Africa All Blacks Squad, but I don’t remember who was their opponents because I was very young. But I think Kaizer Motaung was part of SA All Black Squad because all admired him. In fact, there was not much to watch on television by then except live matches, especially on weekends.

I can still remember our small black and white television that was operated with a battery of a car because there was no electricity by then. It was so frustrating when a battery died while watching the match. TOUCHLINE wants to believe the poor standard of our football and too many sopies/dramas on television are the main reason why the families don’t watch soccer matches together anymore like in the past.

For example, with the African Cup Of Nations (AFCON) underway in Cameroon, family members are fighting for the television remote control because others want to watch sopies/dramas while others want to watch the soccer match to the point where they go to the toilet with the remote control because they know when they come back someone would have changed the television channel.  It is the matter of first come first serve when it comes to a remote control.

This is how we used to spend  quality time as a family watching soccer matches together at the weekend and during the week, we would match drama together but take note, there were few sopies/dramas on television by then. Lets bring back those memories when the whole family would watch live soccer match together.