How Chiefs’ Champions League win is vital for SA football

Let’s get this fact out of the way first. Kaizer Chiefs are the most supported club side in the country. I am stating that obvious fact first because I know there are some who do not agree with this.

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I am a kind of guy who throws the first punch anyway. But if you retaliate, I run, so please don’t take me on, on that. Just take my word and listen to the rest of what I have to say.

The Chiefs brand has taken a huge knock over the past few years as they went on an unprecedented trophy drought. It is worth noting that in the same era that Chiefs have been going through a drought, local football has also stalled.

Yes, our league remains the most well run (don’t laugh, I almost fell of the chair myself as I wrote that). Okay, let me rather say the most profitable league in the continent. But if you look at the standard, it has not improved.

I don’t mean to degrade the smaller teams but do you think they caught up because they improved? No. They caught up because those at the top stalled and some even slipped back.

Kaizer Chiefs have slipped back while Orlando Pirates just stalled. Only Mamelodi Sundowns have leapt forward over the past few years hence their dominance. If you want to argue on this, just look at how these smaller teams are run and tell me if they really deserve to be competing at the level they are in.

I can even go as far as to say look at how Bafana have not been successful since Chiefs dropped. But let me stick to the point now before you throw things at me. What I wanted to say here is that I am hoping that should Chiefs win the Champions League, it will remind them that they are a big club, a trend setter.

This could be big for our football because once Kaizer Chiefs consider themselves a big club again, only then will they sign big players with big temperament. That will also auger well for Bafana. Over the past few years, Chiefs’ transfers have been rather shabby and questionable.

We all still don’t know which ‘Juju’ man gave them the portion that has seen them go all the way past some credible opposition to the final of the Champions League. That is because if you look at their squad and compare it with that of their poor neighbours, Swallows FC, you’d be forgiven if you think the Dube Birds are the bigger of the two sides – which is of course true, but a story for another day.

Now if they win this trophy, it will put them in the spotlight again and remind them that they are supposed to be fighting for such trophies every season and not be struggling to beat minnows like Stellenbosch, Baroka and Cape Town City.

Every big league in the world has three or four dominant teams and that benefits their national teams because they have a compact pool of players who have big hearts and are fighters. We also need that. We once had Chiefs, Sundowns, Pirates and SuperSport United as the dominant four, and things were looking well even for Bafana then. It can happen again – if Chiefs win this thing.