The issue of the coming World Cup is a very serious concern. Fifa through its Gen Sec have recently complained about what they termed poor attendance during the recent Nelson Mandela Challenge down at the Platinum Province, on the outskirts of Rustenburg, in the semi rural area of Phokeng.South Africa is a developing country, and is in the continent of Africa. The majority of the people here live below the poverty line. That does not affect their love of football though. They would take their hard earned cash and go watch their favourate teams. This might not happen week in and week out, but most of the time there is a reasonable crowd at our stadiums.
They will go to the Computickets, Shoprite stores to purchase their tickets in making sure their beloved players hear their vuvuzelas. This is the only way they know will get them to the stadium, and the fact that most of the time they will get the tickets at the stadium. This is how they would have expected to make their way to the stadium come 2010.
These soccer loving fans can easily be classified into several categories.
The Lower class: These are the ones who are very passionate about the game and do not earn too much money. They go to most if not all the games of their teams and are always in the smoke of Dagga, on what is called the extra strong site of the stadium.
The Middle class: They do love the game and they aspire to be in the suites, and for them sitting on the extra strong is actually not their thing, but what can they do. Once in a while especially on month end they would be in the suites, or when their bosses are happy they would be in the suites and they would make everybody know about it.
Then the Upper class: For them going to the stadium is their way of Networking. They will always be in the suites and they do not care much about what happens on what happens on the pitch most of the time. These are the ones who unfortunately can afford to buy tickets to the world cup. The only problem is that they are very few, and hence the sales of the tickets are so low.
As for the way the tickets are sold and the prices thereof, the lower class are excluded big time. I would not even talk about the internet, because the majority of our supporters are not that computer literate. This is basically not for us the lower class. I went to the FNB branch to try to buy some tickets. It took all my lunch time to get to buy the tickets, and I was told that this is not confirmed that I will see the two games I choose.
Well, if you ask me, those that filled the Loftus Stadium when Kaizer Chiefs played Manchester United during the Vodacom Challenge, will have to go there and clap their hands when our Beloved Bafana Bafana take to the pitch during the world cup.
The lower class supporter...
Baile (Diskioff manager)
baile.diskioff@gmail.com
