Aces fans road show
Mpumalanga Black Aces are planning to revive the club’s fan bases around the Mpumalanga province to rally behind the team and will be visiting various communities in the next few weeks.
Speaking to blackaces.co.za, the Aces supporter’s liaison officer, Thulani Khumalo said that they have decided to restore an interim committee soon, which will move around provincially and nationally, mobilizing AmaZayoni fans to return to their old ways of backing their club on match days and painting their home venue in the famous blue and white colours.
“We want to reach out to all Aces fans across the province and the country, wherever they are, so that we can get them back to supporting our club on match days like it used to be. We will wind up with the whole province of Mpumalanga spreading the message that dark days of playing in near empty stadiums are now numbered,” said Khumalo who is a fan favourite amongst the AmaZayoni faithful.
The first gathering will be on Saturday, January 25 at Klarinet Community Hall where the meeting will be aimed at reviving the support base in Klarinet and surrounding areas. However, anyone who wants us to come to their communities must invite us and we will not hesitate to come. Be it in the Free State, KZN or even North West and Limpopo, we will be there to activate our upcoming matches and listen to how and where the fans would like to move forward in terms of going to the stadiums to support Aces.”
“Then our following meeting will be on February 1, at Langkloof. There as well we’ll be engaging with our supporters, calling upon them in their numbers to come and rally behind the team. Then on February 2 we’ll be in and around the eMalahleni townships like Lynnville and Ackerville. We have a busy schedule and we’ll be publishing our program of action very soon,” added Khumalo.
“Various PSL fans have been blamed for deserting their teams in the past few seasons, as numbers in the stands continue to dwindle. AmaZayoni fans have also been to blame, as their numbers in the stands have also spiralled in the previous years, largely due to the club’s forced decision in 2012 to relocate from their traditional strong base at the Puma Rugby Stadium in eMalahleni.”
But according to Khumalo, the interim committee intends to set up Aces‘ fan ‘clubs’ coordinators from the district level to provincial and national levels, to arrest the declining numbers in the Aces’ home fixtures on match days.
“Everyone might be having his or her reasons for not supporting the club on match days in a couple of seasons, but we have decided to unite and get back together for the good of the club. During the 2010/11 season, when Aces was still in the PSL, statistics have shown that Aces were ranked in the top three bracket of teams, with the greatest home support on match days. Aces were ranked in the same class as Kaizer Chiefs, Bloemfontein Celtic and Orlando Pirates, in terms of numbers in the stands. With the new signings the team has made at the start of the season and during the current January transfer window, the AmaZayoni fans should be looking forward to attending games at the stadium and having a successful season back in the top-flight of South African football.”
“The general narrative amongst the blue and white support of AmaZayoni is that of happiness-all around pertaining to the new signings that the team has made, in a bid to cement their place in the Premier Soccer League (PSL). As supporters we are honoured and fell it will be proper for our galaxy of supporters to play in front of a packed stadium,” ended Khumalo.
Anyone who would like to have more information about the Aces supporters’ revival mission, can contact the Supporter’s Liaison Officer, Thulani Khumalo on: 072 751 0188.
