SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt has agreed with Rulani Mokwena and Jose Riveiro that Premier Soccer League (PSL) pitches are not up to standard.
There’s been a lack of fluent performances and goals at the start of the 2023/24 season and Mokwena suggested that the pitches are playing a major role.
After their 1-0 win over ten-man Moroka Swallows in the MTN8, he revealed had a conversation with Hunt and Riveiro at the launch over the issue.
“I have always said that in South Africa before we even speak about the standard of the game, we have got to improve the quality of the fields,” Mokwena recently stated.
“I have watched a couple of the games now, and very few fields or stadiums have a very smooth surface, and that should be a worry for South African football.”
When asked by iDiski Times whether it affects the type of football they want to implement after a rather rigid display in their 1-0 win over Cape Town City at the TUT Stadium, Hunt was clear in his opinion.
“Absolutely, 100%, if you look across all the pitches, all the stadiums, even Orlando Stadium, it’s bad,” Hunt said.
“The PSL… I think the onus is on clubs to do a little bit more, and we have to get pitches [fixed] the pitches are so bad, hard, bouncy!
“We have to get football pitches, we watch football every week and we see the pitches our players play on.
“I feel for the players to play on this, they played four games a day on this for the last week [in Varsity Football], I said to the players, don’t play on the grass, we won’t play on the grass and we adapted as best we can.
“If you try and build up play here, you have a problem, the ball will end up by your knee or waist height by the time you run with the ball.”
When asked to expand on what he means by clubs needing to do more, as most stadiums are run by local municipalities at present, he stated that the product for the supporters is being compromised.
“It affects the product, if you putting in millions and millions of rands into a product, you want it to be better, and you feel for the players when the ball is bobbling and bouncing all over the show,” he said.
“Don’t you want to see a better game? We want to see a better game, it’s not about being a purist, but you wanna see a better game. It wasn’t bad but in general, all pitches need to be better.”
SuperSport are currently second in the DStv Premiership after two wins and a draw and they’ve yet to concede a goal this season.
