I
have said time and time again that you cannot dry today’s washing with
yesterday’s sun. What was good enough yesterday might not be enough tomorrow.
Knowing the real reasons why you are successful helps you hone in on what works
and discard what doesn’t.
Sometimes
it is not what you are doing but how you are doing it. Ours has become a world
of instant gratification where ‘now’ is the only time. In case you are
wondering where I am headed with all these philosophical annotations, here is
where?
I
have called you here ladies and gentlemen of the media to announce an
innovation to the ABSA Premiership. It is an innovation borne out of a careful
sustained examination of the PSL against a backdrop contained in the
annotations I made earlier.
There
is no doubt that the ABSA Premiership has become a competitive league that is
guaranteed to go to a ‘photo finish’ season after season. In fact, in the last
five years the ABSA Premiership was decided in the final matches played
simultaneously under circumstances where duplicate trophies and helicopters
were held on ‘stand by’.
There
is heightened excitement and conversation from the last eight fixtures of the
league. This conversation transcends club support. It is about the permutations
and probabilities. It is about performance of teams against their rivals where
factors such as venue, time of day even day of the week seem to have a bearing.
It
is about factors as rational as for example rival teams fighting for title
contention versus a place in the top eight or avoiding relegation, to factors
as irrational as teams and venues dubbed ‘hoo-doo’ teams and venues against
certain teams.
The
PSL Executive has therefore decided to add an innovation to the ABSA
Premiership that will create and sustain the excitement and conversation
experienced in the final eight fixtures of the premiership, to last for all of
each team’s thirty fixtures of the season.
To
achieve this, the ABSA Premiership League will from this season, from today, be
divided into Four Quarters, Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. Q1 will have eight fixtures; Q2
seven; Q3 eight and Q4 seven. This means after every team has played eight
games Q1 is over and Q2 starts with the re-set.
Similarly
after every team has played an additional seven games Q2 will be complete and
Q3 will commence with the re-set. So will Q4 commence after every team has
played eight games in Q3 and the re-set.
This innovation is
called the Q-innovation.
There
will be a prize of R1.5 million for the teams that finish the different
quarters at the top. This is over and above the R10 million prize for the
overall ABSA Premiership League winner. The prize money for the winner of the
ABSA Premiership and the four Quarters is R16 million.
Ladies
and gentlemen of the media, the greatest benefit from this innovation is how it
makes every game count - every single one of the 240 ABSA Premiership games. It
migrates the conversation from ‘just my club’s games’ to ‘every game played’.
Scenarios like, “How is the club that is an equal contender for the top spot
against us is going to fare against the team we just drew against today or
yesterday”, creates an across the board interest in all the games of the league
in real time. It is like watching games on a split screen, all with a bearing
on each other.
I
am describing this conversation in singular and not plural although there are
millions of supporters and fans conversing. I deliberately did not call it
conversations because although millions are conversing, they are conversing
about different aspects of the same topic. It is this convergence in
conversation that this innovation seeks to consolidate.
This
conversation happens in your different media platforms. The millions of
supporters and fans consume their soccer through your reports and broadcasts.
It is through your observations, words and images that the excitement and
conversation are fuelled. Your words and images – written, heard and seen.
It
is for this reason that we decided to not limit the excitement and competition
to the teams alone. The PSL Executive has therefore decided to challenge you
ladies and gentlemen of the media to make predictions based on your experience
and thorough knowledge of the teams, game and conditions. You are after all
doing this week in and week out. The difference is that you will be submitting
your predictions to the Auditors – Delloite.
The
forms will be sent to every journalist on our Green 4 CRM system that is used,
amongst other things, to send you invitations and media releases. This is to
ensure that no journalist covering the ABSA Premiership is excluded. The forms
will require you to provide, amongst other things, your ID numbers for
verification purposes. It is important that you provide the information
requested in the form.
As
experts and celebrities in this space, your predictions will make for
interesting reading. Especially since you are expected to get it all right
given you only have to predict win, lose or draw – and not the scores. With it
being the nature of the beast, it expected that you will advance creative and
compelling reasons for your predictions, especially the ones that miss the
mark. At the end Q1 the names of the winners, those that correctly predicted
the team and points of the team that will win Q1, will be put into a draw. The
winner will win R500 000 in the three categories of print, radio and
television.
You
will be required to enter your win, lose or draw predictions until the end of
the quarter to be eligible to win. At the end of each team’s fourth fixture you
will be requested to enter your prediction for Q1 winning team and points it
will win by. These will be kept by Delloite until the end of Q1 when the draw
will be made. If not one entry predicts the correct team and points, the
entries correctly identifying the team will be put into a draw from which the
winner will be drawn. The prize for the winner will in this case be R250 000
for each category – print, radio and television.
Entries
for this weekend fixture, which is game one for every team this season, will
close at 19h00 this evening.
Entries
for all subsequent fixtures will be due one hour before kick-off of first game
in that fixture block. For example the deadline for the game 2 fixture will be
18h30 on Tuesday, 21 August 2012 for all the game 2 fixtures taking place on
Wednesday 21 August and Thursday 22 August. Entries should be emailed to this
email address: Qinnovation@psl.co.za.
The
PSL has extensively consulted and enquired if this competition involving
journalists that cover its space raises any ethical issues.
We
are satisfied that just like journalism awards recognise and reward journalists
without compromising the integrity of the profession; this competition does not
compromise the ethics and integrity of the journalist covering the ABSA
Premiership. This inclusive competition will instead enhance the job already
performed by the journalist in this space without any negative influence. You
ladies and gentlemen are already making these predictions. All that is added is
that you will be doing the prediction with a possibility of recognition and
reward for you or a charity of your choice.
I
am mentioning charity as the PSL Executive has provided for journalists who are
precluded from winning prize money by their employers or for any other reason
can nominate a charity of their choice to be a recipient beneficiary of their
prize.
