PSL chairman Dr. Irvin Khoza has explained why football fans have not returned to the stadiums once again during the DStv Premiership campaign.
It is now a year and 11-months since fans have not been allowed to watch games live in the stadiums after the break-out of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Though there was a hope of football spectators to return to the stadiums after the Minister of Health, Dr. Joe Phaahla, and SAFA President Dr. Danny Jordaan met last year in October, where the ministry welcomed the recommendations by the football mother body, it is still not possible for the PSL to make it happen for the fans.
Dr. Khoza has now explained why it is still difficult for them to bring back the fans, saying they are still waiting for the adjustment of the regulations from government.
“I don’t know whether they are guided by the regulations, Kasi (Township) with our formal structure there are two different laws that apply,” he answered at Wednesday PSL press conference, when asked about the fans attending Township games.
“Some funerals they ask for 100 people at Kasi, you know what happens at Kasi. The regulation says we must have 2000 spectators, now unfortunately we have got constraints as a league.
“The responsibility is towards our partners, the sponsors, the suppliers, and everybody, among themselves, the tickets that must go are +/- 2000 to 3000 tickets, what remains for the supporters?
“But also the cost of staging a game, you need two to three hundred thousand Rand, just to stage the game, to comply depending on the risk-category of that game, that you must spend in hosting that game.
“So that is why the executive with the concurrence of the clubs say it is better to manage it at the level of the bubble, until such time they allow us full access of supporters into the stadiums, because of there is litigation in terms of expenses that must be liquidated.
“Now if a club is not sponsored, they must spend two/three hundred thousand rands, imagine what happens. And for the last two years there were no income coming from the gates, so where do you get that money from?
“If there is a high category game, you must spend R500K to 1 million just before the game kick-start to comply with the requirements of the risk assessment provided for by the SASRIA act, so this is something that affecting us.
“The media also has been complaining, saying why don’t allow it to go to the stadium, but we had to make a call to say what do we do with media houses, those traditionally known community radio stations, how do we accommodate them? So those are the concerns that we have.
Khoza also addressed the issue of the Video Assistant Referee after the recent Philly’s Games had a monitor to review decisions.
“But Kasi is Kasi, if you talk about Kasi, somebody was telling me that there was a VAR in the Kasi, you’re going to ask me the question,” Khoza said.
“But they were using a SuperSport monitor but because it was Kasi it was a VAR. But I think the application is different from everybody, but we’re waiting for that opportunity guided by the regulations, how far we can go in the issue as far as supporters are concerned.
“We’ve been responsible up to now, we managed to make sure that we comply the best we can, because we’re newsworthy. Anything untoward was going to create the unnecessary news which is negative, is not good for our sponsors, it’s not good for the supporters, not good for the clubs, and It’s not good for the country.”
