Safa owes Bafana fans an explanation

Soccer has become such a mega-business – both in South Africa and across the world – that sometimes its administrators suffer from a God complex. Look at world body Fifa and the martinet-like way in which some of its people have behaved over the years.

Although the SA Football Association (Safa) has not yet commented on why it refused the SABC access to last Saturday’s Bafana Bafana match against the Seychelles at FNB Stadium, we do think the national soccer body owes local fans an explanation.

SABC claims it had paid for the rights to show Bafana matches and that the contract – which apparently has not been renegotiated – entitled them to cover two last national team matches, including the Seychelles one.

The bottom line is that football fans who can’t afford satellite TV were deprived of seeing their team’s best performance, a 6-0 drubbing of the islanders.

The SABC has a mandate to air all sports which are of public interest … and it doesn’t get any more popular than football. At the same time, Safa needs to ditch their God complex and remember that they have an obligation to satisfy those very fans who have, over the years, made them into a successful, wealthy enterprise.

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