Coronavirus pandemic hits hard on kasi football
It hasn't been easy for those who benefited financially from the local games and tournaments.
The Corona Virus pandemic has disrupted many industries and robbed them of a chance to have a fruitful year, local football games and tournaments had to be canceled which put a huge dent on teams as tournaments are their way of making money and promoting their players to professional level. Local coaches and team managers as much as they feel the negative impact of the pandemic, they’re still hopeful that things will get back to normal.
“The South African Football Association (SAFA) took a decision to suspend all football activities soon after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the country to go on lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, these news came as a huge blow to us because South Africa is dubbed a footballing country and one cannot imagine a weekend without competitive matches,” said Sipho Shabangu, Premier Impala FC manager.
“Every league has now been forced to close down, from Lower-division leagues like SAB Provincial streams, ABC Motsepe League, Glad Championship and topflight PSL. Players’ contracts have been affected, championships and relegation battles are on hold and no salaries for match officials. We still hope for better days to come as our health is more important, this pandemic shall pass and football will return,” he added.
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It hasn’t been easy for those who benefited financially from the local games and tournaments.
“As much as the pandemic came and disrupted everyone globally, I feel like amateur football has been hit hard. To a lot of us coaches, armature football is our livelihood. It is where we find peace, joy, and passion and to some, they earn a living from it and now it’s hard for them to even survive,” said Baanetse Mokwanyane, one of the coaches at Pimville Westham.
Mokwanyane also feels that players miss the game of soccer.
“I have a few things to point out. Number 1 our work as coaches has gone down the drain, we have taught junior players the basics of soccer and just when they were getting the hang of it, lockdown happened so all the hard work won’t be noticed.
“Number 2 form will be lost. When the lockdown was announced our team was number one on the log with no loss so it interfered with the process.
“Number 3, the spike in township tournament organised during the lockdown. The reason for the spike of tournaments organised during lockdown is due to the fact that soccer players ended up being bored because they can’t do what they love so that put pressure on the coaches and the club owners,” Mokwanyane said.
“Some coaches will say it’s because they don’t want the kids to get involved in wrong things but I say they miss the game and they are not getting the same feeling and adrenalin they used to get before lockdown.
“Even though coaches know that it’s risky and players can get infected, it’s hard for them to sit and not do anything as some put food on the table with those tournaments.
“Armature football won’t be the same again and players are getting depressed by the day.
“My closing words are; we need to comply no matter how hard it is so that we can flatten the curve and the sooner that happens the better and we will be back to doing what we love the most which is playing and coaching soccer,” he concludes.
Football is one of the major entertainment activities in townships, spectators also miss gathering at local grounds and stadia to watch the game of soccer.
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