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The Moses Mabhida Stadium will bring the contrasting pictures of South African football support to the fore in the coming week.
The iconic Durban arena will host Bafana Bafana’s Nelson Mandela Challenge clash with Paraguay on Tuesday night, four days before the already sold-out Telkom Knockout semifinal between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates on the same turf.
Tickets for the Soweto derby encounter were sold out two hours after going on sale last week, while the demand has not been the same for Bafana since outlets opened sales on Thursday.
Moses Mabhida Stadium’s manager, Vusi Mazibuko, partly attributed the slow pace of the national team’s attraction to Bafana’s inconsistent performances.
In their recent fixture at the KwaZulu-Natal venue in September, South Africa attracted a paltry crowd in their goalless Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya.
Safa president Danny Jordaan has urged “football fans to come in their thousands” for the Bafana game, which kicks off at 7pm.
In contrast, Mazibuko and his team are already up and running with preparations for the first Soweto derby at Mabhida since 2014, when the two powerhouses last collided in the MTN8 final.
About 56 000 fans are expected for the epic match on Saturday.
“In the South African context, no event is bigger than the Soweto derby,” said Mazibuko. “That tickets sold out in two hours tells you that we’re planning for a big event – which includes the logistics, the anxiety and the expectations.”
According to Mazibuko, the contract for Saturday’s match is between Mabhida and the PSL, and not Chiefs, who also have an existing deal to use the KwaZulu-Natal arena as their alternative ground.
He said the arrangement with Safa was that Mabhida covered match-related costs in the form of the venue and security, while the PSL paid the R180 000 stadium rental fee.
The stadium makes its profit from hospitality packages and catering, among other revenue streams.
The SA Police Service, which recently announced a partnership deal with the PSL, is in charge of security logistics during Saturday’s derby.
“We’ve learnt our lessons from what happened in the past,” said Mazibuko, in reference to the recent incidents of pitch invasion.
This, he said, applied to the back-to-back Telkom Knockout quarterfinals at Mabhida involving Chiefs and Pirates, who eliminated SuperSport United and AmaZulu, respectively.
“The police are in charge of security in terms of the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act. The police will announce early in the week what the security plans are.”
Last weekend, Chiefs played some of their Absa Premiership games against Chippa United behind closed doors as punishment for the unruly scenes involving Amakhosi fans in Durban earlier this year.
The same applied to their match against Polokwane City on October 6.
Mazibuko said the two fixtures without the spectators was a big loss in terns of revenue, but “it’s difficult to quantify as it includes the mamas selling pap en vleis, as well as the hotels and travelling fans”.
It is ironic that Amakhosi return to Mabhida with suspect form since their loss to Pirates in a league clash in October.
Amakhosi edged SuperSport United 1-0 in the Telkom Knockout quarterfinals, and beat Black Leopards with the same margin in the league a fortnight ago before they were held to a goalless draw by Chippa United last weekend.
Pirates, on the other hand, have recorded a similar run of results since they won the Soweto derby four weeks ago.
Prior to their goalless stalemate against Mamelodi Sundowns last weekend, the Buccaneers beat Polokwane 2-1 in the league and knocked out AmaZulu 3-1 in the Telkom last eight.
If there is one aspect Chiefs coach Giovanni Solinas and his Pirates counterpart Milutin Sredojevic are hoping for, it’s having their players back from Bafana duty injury free.
National team coach Stuart Baxter has called up the Amakhosi duo of Itumeleng Khune and Ramahlwe Mphahlele, as well as the Bucs trio of Vincent Pule, Thembinkosi Lorch and Innocent Maela.
This group is likely to be exempted from the Paraguay game as Baxter indicated that he was mindful of a hectic schedule awaiting Chiefs and Pirates, including their pending assignments in the CAF inter-club competitions.
