SAZI HADEBE | The PSL is another procession thanks to short-sighted owners and administrators

It’s a new year and we should be embracing new things. How I wish I could say SA football is doing that.

It seems the more we move from one year to another, the more things stay the same or get worse for our football. It’s so tiring waiting for something to happen. Something exciting that can galvanise the nation such as SA Cricket’s new competition, the SA20.

A predictable outcome in the Premier Soccer League is again in the offing as Mamelodi Sundowns look on course to win a sixth successive DStv Premiership title at a canter. The way things are going you can already guess who’s going to win the same gong next season.

The 2022/23 season has been one of the poorest of the past 26 seasons of PSL football, with established clubs like Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United, all of whom have won this championship before, struggling.

Instead newcomers Richards Bay FC, the KwaZulu-Natal rookies who have not done anything special except to ensure they concede as few goals as possible, are the ones who remain 14 points behind Sundowns in the second round. At this rate, we might as well give Sundowns the trophy as suggested by a number of the coaches. These coaches know what we all know: no-one will catch Sundowns. This says a lot about our football as one of the coaches, Ernst Middendorp of Swallows FC, congratulated Sundowns even before the first round of the championship was concluded.

Clubs like Chiefs, whose supporters thought they would see improvement in their squad after the appointment of Kaizer Junior Motaung as the club’s sporting director, have had to endure another embarrassing season.

Instead of having teams that can compete with Sundowns, we’ve discovered their admirers on opposition benches. These clowns often blame their weaknesses on the quality Sundowns are able to buy because of their bottomless pockets. These coaches give little credit to Sundowns’ hard-working coaches, led by their 36-year-old head coach Rulani Mokwena, who spend sleepless nights plotting for their next games.

Clubs like Chiefs, whose supporters thought they would see improvement in their squad after the appointment of Kaizer Junior Motaung as the club’s sporting director, have had to endure another embarrassing season with a team that lacks experience in its technical department as much as the playing staff.

Pirates have also continued with their erratic recruitment of players, which they took to another level this season when they brought back Ndumiso Mabena, who is now a 35-year-old striker and yet to make his debut almost three months after training with the club.

The same Buccaneers pulled another classic last week when they released their 21-year-old striker from Ghana, Kwame Peprah, on loan to Maritzburg United. Peprah is the same player who scored seven goals for Pirates in all competitions last season but found no luck in getting game time this season under new Spanish coach Jose Riveiro.

It is this sort of confusion within these big Soweto clubs that has helped Sundowns flourish in the way they have over the past decade. If this was to benefit SA football, and Bafana Bafana in particular, nobody would be complaining or alarmed, but because Sundowns’ success is just that — their own success — it is so worrying.

It is against this backdrop that Bay have emerged and managed to be second on the Premiership table. But the KZN outfit doesn’t have the resources to challenge Sundowns. Bay look to be there to disturb the confused lot trying to catch up with Sundowns.

If you look at Bay’s stats you can see this is a team that wants to maintain their status in the elite league and probably try to do better in the coming years. Bay have been allowed to exceed their own expectations by clubs who are constantly failing to find a formula to challenge Sundowns.

In their 16 matches, Bay have only scored 14 times and won eight matches. It is the eight goals that Bay have conceded that have helped them to second spot, as that record is far superior to Chiefs, who have shipped in a whopping 20 goals while scoring 18.

Pirates also have disappointing stats. Bucs went to their last game against Lamontville Golden Arrows, their 16th league game of the season, having scored just 10 goals. The Buccaneers added three in their 3-1 victory over Arrows, but having conceded 12 and lost six games, they can’t be labelled likely to challenge Sundowns.

You’ve got to give some credit to Gavin Hunt at SuperSport United, the club that has occupied second spot for most of the season and is currently third, two off Bay’s 29-point tally. Like Bay, there’s nothing extraordinary about Hunt’s team which has had many of its top stars emigrating to Sundowns.

You could argue that if SuperSport owners still harboured a long-term future in SA football, they would have long supported Hunt with better and quality material than they have and they’d be certainly be a club to challenge Sundowns. Hunt’s team, one of the only two alongside TS Galaxy to beat Sundowns this season, are many people’s bet to finish second behind Sundowns this season. But like many of the PSL teams, SuperSport have been losing many games they’ve no business losing.

This weekend is supposed to be the one every SA football supporter was looking forward to, with Chiefs hosting Sundowns at the FNB Stadium on Saturday evening. But given Amakhosi’s poor performances this season, marked by two 4-0 thrashings by Sundowns and AmaZulu FC, you’d forgive those expecting a walkover.

SA football would not be like this if we had club owners and football administrators who took their business seriously and had a vision. Our supposed professional football is so boring and predictable, it’s no wonder it can’t attract new supporters and investors.