MOGAMAD ALLIE: PSL has to act against unruly Amakhosi fans before it’s too late

The problem of inadequate crowd control measures at SA football matches is, sadly, nothing new and it reared its ugly head again in the normally quiet Winelands town of Stellenbosch on Sunday when the home side hosted Kaizer Chiefs in anquarterfinal clash at the Danie Craven Stadium.

Despite the dust that’s been gathering in their trophy cabinet since they claimed their fourth league title in May 2015, there is not doubt that Amakhosi is the country’s most popular club. So when they are in town, fans come out in their numbers to see their heroes in action.

Of course, it’s great to see fans filling up the stadiums as has often been the case at the start of the season. Long may it continue.

The big crowds also mean security has to be tight and efficient to ensure everyone at the match venue arrives and leaves safely. That’s the least anyone would expect when leaving their homes for an afternoon or evening of entertainment.

As unfortunate as Sunday’s chaos was, it was not entirely surprising. It was only through a stroke of good fortune that there have been no reports of serious injuries.

It pains one to say that Chiefs fans, by no means all, but certainly quite a few of their number in Cape Town, have a long history of indiscipline. It’s no coincidence that many would arrive at the venue shortly before kickoff without tickets and then force their way into the stadium through sheer weight of numbers.

This strategy goes back to the late 1970s when the Amakhosi played teams like Cape Town City and Hellenic in the former National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) when gates were broken down by unruly fans bent on getting free access to the ground. And they normally succeeded in their mission, hence their mantra of rinse and repeat continuing for the next few decades.

On Sunday, tickets were sold out well before the game yet there were Chiefs fans who managed to force their way into the venue by scaling the perimeter fence. Some even stood triumphantly on top of the turnstile enclosures with no security or police officials anywhere to be seen.

Lost controversially

The sight of young children, some under the age of 10, being part of the chaos was painful to observe — these innocent souls could so easily have been caught in a stampede. All of this, including traffic congestion en route to the venue, forced a 30-minute delay to the start of the game.

Inside the stadium, fans broke down the fence in front of the grandstand to gain free access to seats that others would have paid for. Never mind the overcrowding on the main stand where the staircases were occupied by fans. One shudders to think what would have happened if there were any kind of emergency or if Chiefs had lost controversially, which so nearly was the case.

During the game, Chiefs fans invaded the pitch when Ashley du Preez netted a second-half equaliser and they did so again after their team won the penalty shoot-out, forcing the players and match officials to beat a hasty retreat into the change rooms.

It was always going to be a challenge for the Premier Soccer League (PSL), who are responsible for security at knockout matches, to maintain order and ensure the safety of fans, many of whom had their afternoon’s entertainment spoilt by an unruly minority.

Many have blamed the relatively small venue for being a contributing factor to Sunday’s chaos. Had security been better co-ordinated and more strategically planned, the game would have proceeded without incident. Why were fans who had no tickets even allowed to get close to the stadium? Surely measures should have been put in place, some distance away from the stadium, to ensure that only those with tickets were allowed to proceed.

This is how things were done in past years when BidVest Wits hosted Chiefs at their 6,000-seat Mill Park Stadium. There were never any problems because the security was tight and rigidly enforced, giving a lie to those who claim the Danie Craven Stadium was too small to host a game involving the Soweto giants.

Surely the least the PSL and the clubs could do is to identify some of the culprits from television footage and widely circulated social media clips and lay charges as they are empowered to do by the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act of 2010.

As long as there are no consequences for such unruly behaviour that could potentially cause serious injury and even loss of life, the small minority will continue to act with impunity.

One can only hope that Stellenbosch FC will have absorbed the lessons from Sunday’s chaos and implement much stricter security measures when they host Chiefs in their first-round league encounter, scheduled for the Danie Craven Stadium on October 9.