Chiefs, to their credit, have since issued a statement apologising for the disruption, but the club can expect Zola Majavu, the PSL prosecutor, to charge them yet again. This would hit Amakhosi hard in the pocket as they only last month had to pay a hefty fine.
The question now is whether these fines are a deterrent to stadium hooliganism. They are not, for we wouldn’t be having incidents repeating with such alarming regularity. An enraged fan jumps onto the field to threaten the referee and players, gets away with being escorted out of the stadium and the club pays a fine.
The PSL and authorities should look at sterner action. How about banning the said fans altogether from the stadium? It would have been helpful if, after Saturday’s disruption at Soccer City, we would have heard from police and the league as to what happened to those fans who were apprehended after illegally entering the field.
Instead, we have had only the Chiefs' statement thus far, which is not enough to spread the message that hooliganism is intolerable.
The PSL will likely issue another fine to Chiefs, but when emotions run high, hooligans will have forgotten all that. This begs the question: Why not isolate and punish the said fan instead of fining only the club?
SOWETAN SAYS | Punish the hooligans, not clubs
Image: Alche Greeff/Gallo Images
It seems the PSL will be fining teams every month for the poor behaviour of fans this season.
This week the league announced it had found Orlando Pirates guilty of spectator misbehaviour after their fans pelted objects at Orlando Stadium during their match against Magesi on October 20. Pirates lost that match 2-3 and have now been fined R100,000, of which R50,000 was suspended.
The Pirates incident came weeks after Kaizer Chiefs fans – in the club’s match against Mamelodi Sundowns at the end of September – similarly hurled bottles on to the FNB Stadium field. The league charged Amakhosi for that and fined them R150,000, but that didn’t deter fans from repeating the hooliganism at the weekend during their 0-4 loss to Sundowns in the Carling Knockout quarterfinal.
On Saturday, there were frequent disruptions to play. On at least two occasions, fans jumped over the barricades and entered the playing field. This forced referee Luxolo Badi to halt proceedings until security officials and police got the situation under control.
Chiefs, to their credit, have since issued a statement apologising for the disruption, but the club can expect Zola Majavu, the PSL prosecutor, to charge them yet again. This would hit Amakhosi hard in the pocket as they only last month had to pay a hefty fine.
The question now is whether these fines are a deterrent to stadium hooliganism. They are not, for we wouldn’t be having incidents repeating with such alarming regularity. An enraged fan jumps onto the field to threaten the referee and players, gets away with being escorted out of the stadium and the club pays a fine.
The PSL and authorities should look at sterner action. How about banning the said fans altogether from the stadium? It would have been helpful if, after Saturday’s disruption at Soccer City, we would have heard from police and the league as to what happened to those fans who were apprehended after illegally entering the field.
Instead, we have had only the Chiefs' statement thus far, which is not enough to spread the message that hooliganism is intolerable.
The PSL will likely issue another fine to Chiefs, but when emotions run high, hooligans will have forgotten all that. This begs the question: Why not isolate and punish the said fan instead of fining only the club?
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