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Pressing Issues: Let’s make sure Stars keep shining in the Free State

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S'Busiso Mseleku
S'Busiso Mseleku

Last week, I wrote about the marvellous job Luc Eymael is doing at Free State Stars.

The unfashionable side has been in the top four in the Absa Premiership table for quite some time now under the Belgian’s tutelage. They dropped to fifth going into this weekend.

Stars, as once mentioned in this column some years ago, are one of the clubs that are very important in South Africa’s top-flight football.

As the Premier Soccer League (PSL) operates under the National Soccer League banner, Stars is one of the clubs that brings meaning to the word ‘national’ in the title.

The club is one of two in the Free State, the other being Bloemfontein Celtic.

Northern Cape and Mpumalanga are the only two out of the nine provinces that have no representation in the PSL.

This is a serious indictment on football development and administration in those provinces.

It is sad for Mpumalanga residents, who were hard done by after the sale of Mpumalanga Black Aces – who now operate as Cape Town City – even after showing great passion for the game.

Such was the impact made by Mpumalanga football supporters that clubs such as Kaizer Chiefs, Bidvest Wits and SuperSport United have intermittently used Mbombela Stadium – built at high cost for the 2010 World Cup – as their home ground.

And on occasion that a PSL match is played there, local fans still do not disappoint.

I digress. Let me go back to Stars.

You see, for football romantics who are smitten with The Beautiful Game – like yours truly – the Free State Stars story brings a tear to the eye.

It is a club founded by one-time staunch Kaizer Chiefs supporter Bra Mike “Hojewa Batho” Mokoena.

The club started life as Computer Stars, a name Mokoena borrowed from his one-time hero Zacharia “Computer” Lamola, a former Amakhosi midfield maestro who made hacks run out of superlatives for the stuff he made the ball do.

Mokoena poured his hard-earned cash into establishing the club that grew to become Free State Stars, which at some stage won the Coca-Cola Cup.

In some distant past, Stars were such giant-killers that the likes of Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Moroka Swallows dreaded a trip to their then slaughterhouse, the Charles Mopeli Stadium in mountainous QwaQwa.

Not only did they slay Goliaths, they packed their tiny and intimate home venue to the rafters.

The club provided employment for local boys and some of them, such as former school teachers Steve Komphela, Serame Letsoaka and Themba Sithole, were to grow up to become notable coaches.

It provided employment for locals in their offices and on the technical staff, and roaring business for stadium vendors during home games.

The club has since relocated to Bethlehem – not the one of Judea where Jesus Christ was born, but the tiny one in the Free State.

Here, it continues to support local businesses as it has offices in the town’s centre, utilises the small Goble Park Stadium and provides employment for locals.

It is with this in mind that I feel the urge to beg Bra Mike, who was on the verge – for the umpteenth time – of selling the club last season, not to go that route once he realises that he can collect a tidy sum should the club finish high up on the log.

My appeal to the league is to ensure that they give such clubs all the support that they need to help them survive.

We know that Mokoena continues to spend his family’s money to sustain the club with no sponsorship.

Also, Bra Mike and Black Leopards boss David Thidiela are the last of the typical township “preza” (president) – that unique South African club owner who was the be all and end all in a soccer club.

Watching the marketing that always happens whenever the Soweto Derby comes around, one can’t help but think how much smaller clubs would do with even half that support from the PSL to put more bums on seats.

. smseleku@citypress.co.za

. Follow me on Twitter @Sbu_Mseleku

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