CAN OF WORMS OPENED

My dearest readers ...

Before I penned this State-of-the-Nation-Sports-Address (SONSA) yesterday a former Sports Editor sent me a message, asking politely; “The PLE must be the only league in the world where it’s so easy to call off a game than for it to be played. Yini i-purpose ye-league akusiko kudlalisa ema-games yini? Ngoba ngatsi they derive pleasure in cancelling them than seeing them being played,” was his missive. I could not stop laughing. You know things that actually make you laugh when you are supposed to cry or be livid often happen in our football. In our football if you want to go east, suggest west. If you want bread, ask for a stone. Almost a month ago, actually on April 11, 2021, at the self-same King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium, an A-category fixture pitting Royal Leopard against Mbabane Swallows was called off after it turned out the latter could not produce registration cards.

Embraced

This happening at a time when registration of players is done online clearly showed that we have not embraced the digital migration in our football. Swallows were rightly penalised for forgetting to bring their registration cards but in all honesty, in this day and age, we should not be talking about registration cards as everything is now done digitally. That such a prime fixture had to be called off for that reason clearly shows how backwards we are. If that should have made our football authorities raise the standards, here comes a case of a Moneni Pirates player, Menzi ‘Magawugawu’ Simelane a month later literally opening a can of worms.

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, our rules might have clauses that cover the ‘new normal’ but still it has a lot of gaps with regard to duration of the testing period. It is left to everyone’s interpretation. But then again, in the case of ‘Magawugawu’ Simelane, if indeed his results do not show whether he tested negative or positive, then certainly a lot of questions need to be asked how he has been playing using the same inconclusive results? Lest we forget, all the players in the league tested two months ago yet they have been playing three times in a week. Let me problematise (sorry I have made up this word) the issue further. The compliance officers who should be checking all these COVID-19-related issues, why didn’t they pick it up that Menzi ‘Magawugawu’ Simelane’s COVID-19 test certificate had discrepancies?

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