Door open for other PSL clubs to join Chiefs and Pirates in the ‘‘The Beer Cup”

The organisers of the lucrative pre-season encounter between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando have not closed the door on the possibility of inviting other PSL clubs to participate in the money-spinning off-season event in future.

The country's most popular clubs meet at FNB Stadium on Saturday in the latest installment of the Carling Black Label Champion Cup and has been norm in the seven years of its existence‚ tickets to the event were sold out days ago.

But the game has it’s share of critics and Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) events manager Puso Makume had to answer questions about the exclusion of the other PSL clubs from an event that rakes in millions in revenue every year.

While Makume was reluctant to wade into a potential minefield‚ he revealed that the door is not closed on the possibility of the two-member exclusive club welcoming guests in the future.

‘‘Look‚ Carling Black Label is now the official alcohol sponsor of the Premier Soccer League and we do not know what that will bring‚” he said on Monday

‘‘Our bosses before they give us money to do something else‚ we need to first find the proper research to understand whether will it work.

‘‘So there are a lot of things in the background that are happening that I can’t really even talk about much now.

‘‘But we are listening‚ that’s what I’m saying‚ we are listening and we are taking everything account that the consumers and fans are fighting about.”

Tickets to the match were officially sold out some 12 days ahead of the encounter despite a social media campaign to boycott the event.

Some fans still complain about the event’s existence on the calendar seven years after its inception and argue that it should never have replaced what used to be the domestic season’s traditional opener — The Charity Cup.

But this does not seem to matter to the thousands who descend on the venue in huge numbers every year.

The event remains as popular as ever despite it’s gimmick element and Makume said they were never really bothered when they heard about the campaign to boycott this year's game.

‘‘They (social media campaigns) don’t bother me because I believe this event as its own thing is big enough to conquer that‚" he said.

‘‘It’s like trying to get involved in altercation between a man and his wife — that’s not for us.

‘‘So we are focusing on the game‚ that’s what’s happening‚ on the game between Chiefs and Pirates‚ and the Carling Black Label Cup. That’s what we are doing.

‘‘As you can see with the votes‚ as you can see with the tickets being sold out... consumers are still going to come to this and I’m pretty confident that it will actually be full (on Saturday).

Carling Black Label Brand Director‚ Samori Gambrah‚ said they expect the votes to increase to eight million by the time the last vote is counted at the end of the week.

This is a massive improvement from the 3‚5 million votes they amassed last year.

This friendly match‚ nicknamed ‘‘The Beer Cup” by soccer fans‚ has seen more people go through the FNB Stadium turnstiles than a Springboks vs New Zealand Test‚ Bafana Bafana matches‚ cup finals and even official league games between Chiefs and Pirates.

Strict traffic-control measures by JMPD and Gauteng Traffic will be in operation around the 2010 World Cup stadium from 7am on Saturday.

— TimesLIVE