‘FREE’ ENTRY AT SOMHLOLO

MBABANE – Soccer fans continue to enjoy illegal free entry at the Somhlolo National Stadium.

They jump over the metal fence attached around the stadium with consummate ease. This has seen teams losing a lot of money as the people opt for the ‘free’ entry rather than buying pre-sale tickets. A source close to the matter said it was even worse at night as they people forcefully chase away the security personnel and then jump over. Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati confirmed the challenge they were facing of fans gaining free entry by jumping over the metal fence at the stadium. He said this has been happening for a long time and there seems to be a ‘syndicate’ as these people plan ahead of the games their nefarious act. The metal fencing is not good enough to stop people from jumping over.

Vilakati said it was better if there was a wall fence or barbed wire right around the stadium. He confirmed that so far it was only the Somhlolo National Stadium where they were facing the challenge of people gaining illegal entry. “We are hopeful that one day government will improve the fencing around the stadium to stop this bad habit. All the stakeholders being the teams, PLE, government are losing money through this bad habit but the teams are the most losers in this case,” he said. Vilakati said even though they could not confirm the actual figures, they are aware that there is a lot of money that was going down the drain through these illegal entries. He said teams have complained that few tickets were sold compared to the fans inside the stadium, and the illegal entries were the ones contributing to that factor.

Issues

“These are some of the issues we raised during the pre-match meetings and some of the things are beyond our control. The fans who are gaining the illegal entry are not at all showing the love for their teams. This is like stealing and it’s bad for our football. Most of the clubs daily operations rely on the gate collections and if fans will illegally force entry, they are robbing their own clubs,” he added. Vilakati said adding the number of security personnel at the stadium will be more costly to the teams.

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