Ajax Cape Town are fuming that Kaizer Chiefs will play three of their home matches in the Mother City this season, accusing local authorities of abandoning Western Cape football.
Chiefs announced that the Cape Town Stadium, some 1400km from their home base, will be an alternate venue for them this campaign.
They intend hosting games against Bidvest Wits (December 19), Platinum Stars (January 24) and SuperSport United (February 20) at the venue as they seek to tap into their large following in the city.
But Ajax chief executive Ari Efstathiou said it was "unacceptable" that the City of Cape Town will go to the expense of luring Amakhosi to play matches on the coast while teams from the region battle to grow their numbers.
"I find the principle completely wrong," he said. "I don't understand how the City of Cape Town, which has not supported Western Cape football in many ways, is now financially supporting Kaizer Chiefs.
"What we are saying is that Cape Town City council is dishing out money to a team from outside of the city and not supporting local football. That is totally unacceptable."
Efstathiou said the three matches would on average likely draw 25000 fans per game, which at the current PSL rate for tickets equates to R1-million in gate takings. "It costs approximately R600000 to run a game of that magnitude at the stadium, then you have the travel costs for both teams, which could be another R300000," he said. "That leaves R100000 as potential profit. Do you think Chiefs are going to give up homeground advantage, travel and risk losing for R100000? There must be an additional incentive for them put forward by the city."
Although Chiefs have listed the venue as their alternate ground for this season and the fixtures have already been updated on the PSL website, Sowetan understands that the games must still be ratified at a sitting of council and then given the go-ahead by mayor Patricia de Lille.
Efstathiou said: "What the city must realise is that we put up this stadium at a great cost to Cape Town ratepayers and continue to fund it with local ratepayers' money. It therefore should be used to the benefit of the people of Cape Town.
"When we want to host a big game there, and are told that we cannot because there is a party on . I mean, come on, where are we in our football?
"We have been toying with the idea of taking more games to the Athlone Stadium this season to try and cut costs because we get no support from the City of Cape Town. And then we see this? It's unacceptable."
The City of Cape Town had not responded at the time of going to print.
Ajax and chiefs in turf war
Ajax Cape Town are fuming that Kaizer Chiefs will play three of their home matches in the Mother City this season, accusing local authorities of abandoning Western Cape football.
Chiefs announced that the Cape Town Stadium, some 1400km from their home base, will be an alternate venue for them this campaign.
They intend hosting games against Bidvest Wits (December 19), Platinum Stars (January 24) and SuperSport United (February 20) at the venue as they seek to tap into their large following in the city.
But Ajax chief executive Ari Efstathiou said it was "unacceptable" that the City of Cape Town will go to the expense of luring Amakhosi to play matches on the coast while teams from the region battle to grow their numbers.
"I find the principle completely wrong," he said. "I don't understand how the City of Cape Town, which has not supported Western Cape football in many ways, is now financially supporting Kaizer Chiefs.
"What we are saying is that Cape Town City council is dishing out money to a team from outside of the city and not supporting local football. That is totally unacceptable."
Efstathiou said the three matches would on average likely draw 25000 fans per game, which at the current PSL rate for tickets equates to R1-million in gate takings. "It costs approximately R600000 to run a game of that magnitude at the stadium, then you have the travel costs for both teams, which could be another R300000," he said. "That leaves R100000 as potential profit. Do you think Chiefs are going to give up homeground advantage, travel and risk losing for R100000? There must be an additional incentive for them put forward by the city."
Although Chiefs have listed the venue as their alternate ground for this season and the fixtures have already been updated on the PSL website, Sowetan understands that the games must still be ratified at a sitting of council and then given the go-ahead by mayor Patricia de Lille.
Efstathiou said: "What the city must realise is that we put up this stadium at a great cost to Cape Town ratepayers and continue to fund it with local ratepayers' money. It therefore should be used to the benefit of the people of Cape Town.
"When we want to host a big game there, and are told that we cannot because there is a party on . I mean, come on, where are we in our football?
"We have been toying with the idea of taking more games to the Athlone Stadium this season to try and cut costs because we get no support from the City of Cape Town. And then we see this? It's unacceptable."
The City of Cape Town had not responded at the time of going to print.
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