2010/11 PSL Opener: Not a Happy return in Cape Town Stadium

It was one of those exciting days as Friday finally arrived in Cape Town – the first two games of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) were going to be played here. At 5pm we rushed to the stadium and the highway was jam packed with cars going to the stadium. You could hear vuvuzelas being blown as the traffic jam moved slowly to the stadium.

As we entered the stadium we got greeted with smiles from the ladies who were giving away booklets of the host teams: How Vasco Da Gama made history, all the line-ups of the teams (Vasco Da Gama, Orlando Pirates, Ajax Cape Town and Bloemfontein Celtic) and other extra content about the host teams. This was like the feeling of the World Cup… feeling Philip.

When entering our section the game was already underway! You could see the beautiful field as Dane Klate made a run attacking the Vasco defenders with vuvuzelas adding more fire. We were directed to our seats by the security without any problems.

However, as you know your seat will forever be occupied by someone especially when you’re late. The struggle started here when we had to remove a couple of white people who actually didn’t want to move, pointing us to sit in the other row. We refused and ordered them to move and as we were about to sit Mzion and other Pirates supporters arrived. Pirates’ number one relaxed in his seat and watched the first five minutes with order. But a couple of Pirates supporters saw where their legend was and decided to come to where we were sitting. This irritated a lot of people as the Pirates supporters were standing, singing and blocking the view of other supporters.

Security was called into action and the security informed the police officers about complaints from other supporters. At this time I was one of them singing because; ‘I couldn’t beat them so I just joined them’. This was not a case of blocking the view of other supporters, but a case of Pirates supporters occupying the wrong section of seats. The police officers came in peacefully and ordered everyone to show their tickets, and Mzion and some of the Pirates supporters were told to go to where their seats were as allocated on their tickets.

This was not the only drama on our side as people from different sections in the stadium were removed by the police officers. The biggest of them all was when the SWAT (not ordinary police officers) removed the Celtic supporters from the goal pole section. Celtic’s so-called number one fan (Botha) was seen arguing with the police officers and suddenly he was arrested. The entire Celtic group decided (or maybe should I say was forced) to move to the upper tier of the stadium.

I didn’t see the action on the field in the first half because of this pandemonium. I decided to get some beers for my friends during the game just to ease up what I’d just seen. And to my surprise after a long queue one was stunned by the sign that was saying one person must buy two beers. I mean really WHAT was this manje? I was buying for four people and from what I saw the people who were selling the beers were also arrogant and didn’t want to listen.

I flashed back and thought about the World Cup and the treatment we got from there – it was marvelous. One can say foreign supporters were treated much better than the local supporters. I mean really I’ve never seen what I saw in the stadium and I have to blame the organizers. Yes they knew that black supporters will outnumber the other races and they came up with this ridiculous idea of selling two beers to one person. You don’t get this mumbo jumbo in cricket and rugby games where one is not limited to buy beers.

When one thought you’d seen it all in this cold Friday night then another bombshell! After the Vasco Vs Pirates game the beer was finished yet again after queuing for like 30 minutes. One was wondering what was going here. The less said about the toilet chaos the better. The food was also expensive (not the same price as the World Cup) to say the least and one was wondering what would be next.



I don’t like to complain about these kind of things especially when going to a soccer game. This was supposed to be a fun night for the supporters to enjoy the beautiful game and welcome the new 2010/11 season with a smile, but that wasn’t the case. I didn’t like some of the things that were done this night and maybe regretted not spending that time with my girlfriend watching a movie and drinking her bottle of wine. However, it’s hard not to go to a soccer game especially when your blood craves soccer day and night.

Overall the soccer was ok especially the Vasco Vs Pirates game, in which I didn’t see the first two goals. But the game was on a high note and I think it was because of Vasco’s hunger to win their first game in the PSL against Pirates who upped their game after getting stunned by Sibusiso Zuma’s goal. The Ajax Vs Celtic game started well in the first 10 minutes then the game just died and forced people to start speaking about unrelated issues in front of and behind us. The last 20 minutes of the game was alive after Celtic introduced Moses Spandeel and Bennett Chenene. Celtic started to attack and showing desire to get a goal, but it was not to be as the night belonged to Ajax.

I have to say this was one Premier Soccer League opener one will remember for a very long time!

By Proffesor Khumalo