Home | Sports | PLS, LEOPARD SHOULD BURY THEIR HEADS IN SHAME

PLS, LEOPARD SHOULD BURY THEIR HEADS IN SHAME

02/03/2014 06:46:00 BY BHEKISISA MAGONGO

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The normally cool as a cucumber Premier League of Swaziland (PLS) Chief Operations Officer (COO) John Mazibuko showed his other side this week. The soft spoken sports administrator angrily vowed that his organisation would crack the whip on all those who played a part in the mid-week fixture confusion, Royal Leopard to be precise.

This was in the aftermath of what was an embarrassing stand-off between the elite football organisation against an aggrieved Royal Leopard over a rescheduled MTN League title decider against defending champions Mbabane Swallows. For the uninitiated, the police side was supposed to host the game, and according their submission before the FA executive committee on Wednesday they said they wanted the game to be played at Mavuso Sports Centre.
However, the PLS objected to that stating that the club had failed to secure the venue on time for them to issue a fixture as guided by the rules which demand that it should at least come out 48 hours before the match kick-off.
The FA was called to intervene in the matter, and during the meeting they backed Leopard’s claim, but still could not issue a directive on the matter apart from referring it back to the PLS to decide. But still they advised the organisation to ensure that its decision did not affect the supporters and Leopard.

In an interview after the meeting with the FA, Mazibuko made it clear that the game would go to the Somhlolo National Stadium as per the fixture. Moments later in the evening, there was a radio announcement issued by a person purported to be from Leopard saying that the game had been moved to Mavuso Sports Centre. That was about two hours before the 8pm kick-off and few minutes later another announcement by the PLS this time seemed to be correcting the earlier one, insisted that the game would be at Somhlolo National Stadium and that fans should go there.
In between those maddening and embarrassing moments, our office at the Times Sports Desk was inundated with calls from confused supporters who wanted clarity on where the game would eventually take place. We were also confused; hence we offered little or no assistance at all.

In our constant discussions at the Times Sports Desk we all lamented the circus that was playing itself out in our beloved sport. We could not help but cringe in embarrassment. As very important stakeholders in the game, we felt pity not only for ourselves in the media, but the supporters, sponsors and other interested partners whose interests were thrown out in the air as the PLS and Leopard flexed their muscles in a war of egos.
I was personally angry at both institutions (if they still deserve to be called institutions in the first place) for dragging football in the mud. Mazibuko’s anger annoyed me the most as I felt that as a person entrusted with the responsibility of running the league, including issuing fixtures, he could have handled the matter better than what he did.

He should have been proactive in the manner in which he dealt the with the issue, by engaging Leopard prior if they felt that there was a need to move the match to Somhlolo National Stadium, than to find the PLS caught up in the title race war between the two teams.
Not that Swallows had anything to do with the fixture, but there was already simmering rift between the two teams going to the game, which Mazibuko and the entire executive committee could have sensed and came up with a proper way to handle it.

Leopard were the rightful hosts of the fixture, and that power was given to them by the same PLS. The rules allowed for the latter to withdraw that right from the police side, but even in doing that they should uphold the principle of fairplay. Meaning they should have engaged them and told them if they felt playing at the Mavuso Sports Centre was a security threat, or if there were any other reasons which they felt were to the best interest of the league. They are the custodians of the elite league and Mazibuko was hired to do the job on behalf of the executive committee on fulltime basis.

His leadership acumen was needed at the time than to prefer to do damage control in national radio, way after the image of the game had been bruised and battered. I was personally not shocked by what transpired at the Somhlolo National Stadium, when the lighting system appeared to have been tampered with, which caused the game to be called off just three minutes from kick-off. Once again the supporters, sponsors and media were left to lick their wounds, while football officials engaged in a war of egos.

The point I am driving at here is that both parties; the PLS and Leopard, are to blame for the mid-week shameful incident. In fact, the police side should be ashamed of themselves for going to a national radio and mislead supporters and end up going to Somhlolo National Stadium. That was gross misconduct and tantamount to bringing football into disrepute.
The PLS should crack the whip, I agree, but Mazibuko and the executive committee should also do an introspection of themselves to see if their actions did not contribute to the fiasco. With friends like these, our football does not need enemies.