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New lessons for Chiefs, Pirates derby

The turnout at Bafana Bafana's World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso might have been paltry by any standards but the organisers insisted that the fixture still achieved some of its objectives.

Stadium Management SA (SMSA) - who manages the Nasrec arena - had hoped for a full house at FNB Stadium at the weekend to use the Russia 2018 qualifier as a rehearsal for the Soweto Derby next Saturday.

SMSA told Sowetan yesterday that 16000 fans went through the turnstiles on Saturday but "lessons were learnt" in the build-up to the epic Soweto derby.

By yesterday morning, 10000 tickets had already been snapped up for the Absa Premiership clash between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, according to SMSA CEO Jacques Grobbelaar.

"The [Bafana] losses to Cape Verde and the rainy weather hampered us tremendously," he said.

"We have identified some lessons that can be implemented for the Soweto derby; we have done a lot of international study and we got to enhance our planning."

Grobbelaar said key was to avoid the repeat of the disaster that befell the Carling Cup game between the two household names that left two people dead and many others injured in July.

"There will be two check points before fans get into the stadium - first and secondary points. Only people in the perimeter of the stadium would be those with valid tickets otherwise there will be arrests by the police. Even those without parking tickets face arrest if they obstruct traffic," warned Grobbelaar.

He said the scenes of people forcing entry at the last Soweto derby was a "worldwide phenomenon that spills into South Africa".

"We can't blame our people from breaking and entering the stadium [like at the Carling Cup]. It's a worldwide phenomenon," said Grobelaar, adding that only 87000 tickets will be sold for the derby.

Meanwhile, Advocate Vincent Maleka believes the information gathered in the few weeks of probing they stampede should contribute in part to a breakthrough in the ongoing investigations.

The senior council was tasked with probing the circumstances that led to the incident, but the PSL terminated his services a fortnight ago, citing Sports Minister Thulas Nxesi's ministerial committee that launched its own inquiry.

"Some but not all definetely [people] came forward to give evidence [but] the information will be placed before the commission [the ministerial committe] and there is no doubt that they'll make a breakthrough," Maleka told Sowetan.

"Our investigation didn't have the power to subpoena people," he clarified.

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