Why Mpumalanga Black Aces does not belong to Mpumalanga. This is a game of numbers

Mpumalanga Black Aces break my heart as they belong to Gauteng. They have a Witbank name, a Johannesburg base and a Nelspruit home ground. How come? MBA spent a few First Division One seasons in Emalahleni, sometimes sharing the training facilities with archrivals, Witbank Spurs. That did not end on that clash of interests.

After the promotion to the bigger league, the kraal became too small for the two bulls. Besides, Amaziyoni wanted class and the training grounds and facilities were not first class. The Puma Stadium did not meet their professional standards. The MBA owners’ response to that need was to renovate and expand.

The custodians of the stadium were in no mood to permit that, as many stakeholders were involved, including the rugby community. Speculation has it that the local Municipality’s response to the request for land to develop a new facility did not go well. It is not clear if the land was available to start with.

Let us do the numbers now. Mpumalanga as a province has about 3 000 000 people, with Witbank accounting for about 322 000. Compare that to 2 000 000 Namibians and bear in mind that the capital city, Windhoek, whose population is around 295 000.

Witbank, and indeed Mpumalanga has no ABSA Premier Soccer League team, while Windhoek has 9 Namibia Premier League teams, 7 Division One team, 12 Second Division teams. Emalahleni and the whole of Mpumalanga has only Witbank Spurs in Division One. There are only 3 ABC Motsepe Second Division teams in the city and 38 SAB Third Division teams in the region. These numbers do not add up.

Maybe it is not about number, as these are exciting football times. As much as figures do not lie, they lie. If numbers are anything to go by, China and India would win all Fifa World Cups. Brazil would have won the latest version because they have around 20 million registered professionals playing in their 21 states and overseas.

How much you believe in that, I leave it up to you, but the issue close to my heart worries me about the communities’ ability to build homegrown town heroes. The small cities lost many cult heroes to bigger towns for obvious reasons. The playing ground being a little level, the population is content to sit out and live the past. This also brings the subject of yesterday; the foreign coaches in our national team.

While mentioning over 20 000 A Licence coaches from Spain, Germany and France, Danny Jordaan should be delivering a local coach, given his numbers that South Africa has 67 of them. Supposedly, the 32 coaches are involved with local PSL and NFD teams, one each for Amagluglug, Amajita, Amajimbos, Banyana Banyana, Basetsana and so forth. It means there is still over 27 over qualified coaches in either lower leagues or unemployed.

Anyway, the stadium is rarely occupied when Spurs plays their home games. We are sometimes unaware that they play at home. The marketing can be better but that is subject for another day. The point is that unless Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are in town, there is never soccer fever because there are no home town heroes like Frank Makua or Dumisa Ngobe anymore.

When push came to shove, Port Elizabeth imported pride at a good cost. I believe Emalahleni could have taken a leaf from the act of bravery shown by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. They courted Chippa United, attracting them to move from Cape Town.

That savvy business move to PE is rumoured to be subject to R35 million exchanging hands. The Municipality knew the benefits that came with multi-million rand deal. Of course, Chippa United scored a good buck too.

Just as scrupulous, the Maritzburg Municipality realised the business potential of having a PSL team at their doorstep. Actually, rumour has it that Maritzburg United were the first choice team for the NMBM but their local City Fathers got wind of the news and hijacked the project. They counter offered their rivals and landed the deal. At the end of the day, both Municipalities got their fish and both Chippa and Maritzburg United smiled all the way to the bank.

You may be wondering where this is going. Emalahleni Municipality could have paid less for what the two other municipalities did for the same product. Mpumalanga Black Aces may be now looking for the same deal with them or any other suitor. The City Fathers could have upgraded the facilities to the required standards, or built new ones for the benefit of this team and the new ones coming up.

The City will have many more teams in both the Premier League and First Division and soon. The facilities are needed as a matter of urgency.

South Africa Football Play-Offs; The Good and the Bad

We posted about the debacle of the African football game a few posts ago. Since, I went to watch the SAB National Championship at the North West University in Mafikeng, an under-21 tournament for players assumed to ply their trades in the South African fourth tier league (3rd Division). The games should be followed by an offseason, then a pre-season for 2014/15 period. One expects the leagues to resume after August 2014.

In the same vein, I tried to make my way to a last Safa Second Division Mpumalanga match featuring Kwazi Football Club and Phiva Young Stars. Phiva needed a draw or a win to clinch the provincial title that will send them to Durban for the play-offs. Winning the SSD play-offs is a ticket to the professional National First Division. Appoll X1 waited eagerly for the outcome as they topped the league. It turns out Kwazi did not turn up and the points were awarded to Phiva, but Appollo still think there is a bone to chew. 

Now, after the end of the season one NFD team has been sold and bought. Siyavutha FC of Mpumalanga changed hands and relocated to KwaZulu Natal. They managed to sign high quality players, hire and fire a coach already. They have the second set of a technical team. This team will compete with Phiva Young Stars, if they win the SSD play-offs. Royal Eagles, as Siyavutha are now known, are in pre-season while the Stars still have to beef up their squad for the NFD with the left overs of all other NFD teams. Then they will have to assemble a technical team and enter into a pre-season and then enter the bigger league.

In all this, where is parity? Is the planning adequate on the part of SAFA in terms of dealing with the SSD fixture that delayed to completion of the league, ABSA Premier Soccer League who have to accept and assimilate the SSD champions into their ranks as the custodians of the National First Division and Phiva Young Stars who still have to get funding, players and coaches for the NFD? Stars do not have much choice in the matter, but it is within their rights to be rendered adequate and proper pre-season preparation.

FIFA claim that they stand for ‘Football Is For All’, that it must be played and enjoyed by all, anywhere anytime, but is it? How many players in your area are registered at each age-group? Who are the responsible people for development? What programmes are in place for youth development and talent identification? If you are unaware or you have no interest in this, you are not a football person.

Regional office and local football association must furnish all regarding;

(1). list of top coaches and which clubs they belong to.
(2). all qualified coaches and their level of qualifications.
(3). regional database of best players in all age groups.
(4). school teachers who coach and their qualifications.
(5). coaching course instructors available and their qualifications and level of instruction.

Besides the database of coaches in all the leagues under the control of the offices, the development programs for 2014/15, courses for coaches, referees, administrators as well as Sports Medicine and the dates needs to be availed for public consumption. One cannot be a football person without the knowledge of structures available in their town and region. The people responsible for each of these should be known and be accessible public figures. Coaches will need to know those responsible for organising and running the courses, and how are the courses are organised.

Questions about the incentive and motivation for players and coaches in youth structures so as to attract competent coaches to coach the youths is essential, as the coaches needs to embrace development plan and implement it. Lower  leagues need enough competent coaches at every level as the Germans and other countries do. The competence of referees in these leagues and the referee development plan cannot be over-emphasised. It is common to overlook the competent Sports Medicine people and most of the time, nothing is done about it.

One can set themselves a target to find out, but the more they try, the harder they can fail. Go to your nearest football office and ask for any football database in Africa or any of the information above. As much as the Federation of International Football Associations preach ‘For the good of the Game’ one gets lucky to have public information public. It could be that it is never available, but either way, the responsible brothers make it classified information. It must be declassified and become public knowledge.

Colonisation ate our core and brainwashed us to abuse authority ignorantly or deliberately. The responsibility of amassing the data and information comes with the obligation to distribute and broadcast the same. Entrusted with public office, the bearers serve the masses for the benefit of the players of the game, coaches, managers, fans and all. The continent misses a system that can be availed to anyone at any time, whatever the reason.

I read several Technical Master Plans of many countries online. Strong and sound worded, but the materialisation of those remains afar off. The implementation either lacks funds or is entrusted to wrong people whose interests are to protect their offices and positions. Football is a business and bad products must be removed from the production lines and the processes terminated.

The African continent exports footballers overseas. As discussed in other pages, they perform well and become cult heroes in foreign lands, yet that does not translate to any success on the pitch on the motherland. The continent suffers from the natural wealth haemorrhage of the colonial past. That should be bad enough. However, given the football administrations’ international high profile flops, they remain innocent until proven guilty, and who is the jury? Them. Africa will forever remain the world laughing stock.