OPINION: Now it’s over to the supporters to respond

At last, this weekend, we should get something approaching an atmosphere at a Premier Soccer League match, with fans allowed to fill stadiums to 50% of their capacity for the Nedbank Cup quarterfinals.

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One hopes supporters take up the chance to return to watch local soccer, at least those that have any spare money still lying around in this economic climate.

Football without fans is a bit like the game without a soul, though. No, Kaizer Chiefs, the absence of fans is not why your team can’t win a trophy.

After all, it’s been eight years since Amakhosi last lifted silverware, and Covid-19 has only been around for about two of those.

It’s been a long-time coming, to be fair, for the PSL to open their doors to fans, with 2 000 supporters legally allowed at any game for some time.

Up to this weekend, the league have only allowed these fans in for the MTN8 final between Mamelodi Sundowns and Cape Town City, while, from a journalistic perspective, also shutting out most of the media.
For a journalist, too, it will be wonderful to return to the stadia, particularly as watching a game live gives you a perspective on the action that you simply can’t get from your television, however many camera angles there are.

Even on television in Thohoyandou, Polokwane, Tshwane and Chatsworth on Friday and Saturday, it will be good to see the cameras focusing in (hopefully) on actual people, rather than those digital images that DStv use, and to (again hopefully) hear actual crowd noises.

It’s a shame, really, that the league couldn’t get their act together in time for this past weekend’s DStv Premiership action, or for today and tomorrow’s midweek league games. But we’ll take what we can get.
There was a packed stadium, last Tuesday, of course, in Lille, France, as Les Bleus put Bafana Bafana to the sword with a 5-0 hammering.

I am not sure what the performance is meant to teach Hugo Broos about his side, except that they are not even close to the level of the reigning world champions. But I hope it does give him good feedback to work with ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June.

Bafana should, at least, have more than 2 000 supporters in for their next home qualifier (Safa have been allowing fans in for some time), though it remains to be seen if they can even half-fill an FNB Stadium.

It is not as if Bafana Bafana matches in general were particularly well-attended before
Covid-19 anyway.

The same actually applies to DStv Premiership games, with only matches between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates a guaranteed sell-out before Covid-19 struck.

Chiefs, for example, are unlikely to half-fill FNB Stadium for any of their other home matches, except perhaps a meeting with Mamelodi Sundowns.

It’ll be a case of wait-and-see as to exactly how many football fans get back to the stadia now that they are allowed.

This is a football-mad nation, but not necessarily a football-attending mad nation.