Squabbling preschool kids would be jealous of the Safa/PSL feud

Since we have been on lockdown, I have been spending more time than I would normally do with my kids – one is four and the other is two-and-a-half.

I have since been unofficially appointed as a peacekeeper between the two in their incessant fights over toys. If I counted how many times in one day they feud, I’d run out of fingers and toes.

But I guess it is natural, or so I have been told. The younger one in some strange way wants to be more dominant all the time and demands the other’s toys, leaving his own.

That starts a lot of fights which almost all the time ends with one of them screaming his lungs out. I even joked that even if they were to catch the Covid-19 virus, it wouldn’t live long in their lungs because they are cleaned all the time when they scream and cry.

The only time they are quiet is when they are working together but unfortunately, they are almost always up to no good when they get along.

That is why I don’t envy Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa, who has to play the role I play in this house in the feuding – which I believe is unnecessary – between Safa and the PSL.

Just a few weeks ago we were all happy and excited that the two organisations managed to come together and came up with a biological health plan for the return to play that was so good even Fifa said it was the best they had seen.

This showed how great things could be if the two worked well together, like they did in putting together that plan, and our football would benefit greatly indeed. But before long, the two were back to their old ways – and fighting.

This time the bone of contention is between Safa’s Dr Thulani Ngwenya and the PSL’s Michael Murphy for the implementation of the plan. This has reportedly led to the delays that have kept some teams from going back to training.

I listened to Dr Ngwenya this week on SAFM saying Safa have been asked by government how some teams have gone back to training without their notification. The normal procedure would be for Safa to alert government that Team C has complied with all the requirements and is ready to start training again. But that has not been happening because the two – like kids – can’t amicably decide on who becomes the big boss in ensuring all the safety measures are adhered to at all times.

And as my mother would say when she found herself in a conundrum – this barely happened though – “sesobona sekuqoqwa” (which translates to, we will see how things turn out when the show comes to an end).

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