Stadium Management South Africa Chief Executive Officer Bertie Grobbelaar has clarified the change room issue that occurred on Sunday afternoon between Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.
The game between Pirates and Sundowns was delayed by around six minutes after Sundowns had to use a distanced change room, which delayed their appearance on the pitch and there were claims that Masandawana felt badly treated.
Speaking with Thabiso Mosia on Radio2000, Groobelaar clarified that the main change room at FNB is normally utilised by Kaizer Chiefs and it was not opened due to an agreement between the SMSA and Chiefs, meaning Pirates – the home team on the day used the away-team change room, while Sundowns used older change rooms further away from the pitch.
However, Grobbelaar insisted both teams – Pirates and Sundowns – were informed of this in the pre-match meetings.
“It’s more of a club matter. As far as the change room matter, there’s nothing sinister when there was a discussion to playing the game here,” Grobbelaar told Thabiso Mosia on Radio2000.
“We’ve got a contractual agreement arrangement with Kaizer Chiefs as the tenant team that for the Betway Premiership they do not need to vacate their changing room and it will not be used.
“So we then renovated and built a new change room in the old change rooms and that was what made available to the clubs.
“So nothing sinister from Stadium Management, nothing sinister from Orlando Pirates – it was in the agreement that we concluded with them.
“For the Betway Premiership they [the Chiefs change room] can’t be used. There were alignment meetings and there were match commissioner meetings, so I really don’t understand the issue around that was communicated.”
