Kaizer Chiefs PSL Cash Cow? 4 Games, 4 Consecutive Sold Out Venues
Absa Premier Soccer League chairman Irvine Khoza recently announced that the PSL has surpassed the R1 billion revenue mark and this might be chiefly down to Kaizer Chiefs who are proving to be the biggest crowd pullers on the South African football stage.
This season Chiefs might be cementing their position as the most supported club and arguably the biggest football institution in South African football folklore as the crowds probably with nostalgia of the good old days have been coming to cheer out their favourite football team and stars.
“With soccer fans it’s like that. Chiefs… they’ve always had a huge fan base but they don’t go to the games. Now the success is coming back to Chiefs, the fans are coming to the stadiums.” said Chiefs and Bafana Bafana Legend Neil Tovey.
For the fourth weekend in succession a match involving Amakhosi has been sold out with only a few tickets for their Telkom Knockout semi-final clash against Maritzburg United at Mbombela Stadium on Sunday remaining having being made available to the public on Thursday morning.
The previous three were Chiefs against Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld‚ then the successive Soweto derbies where Chiefs beat Pirates on penalties in the TKO quarters‚ and then 3-2 in the Absa Premiership the following weekend.
It however remains to be seen whether the 12th man would propel the Glamour Boys to silverware success that has continuouslu eluded them for the past 4 seasons.
Kaizer Chiefs last tasted silverware in the 2014/15 season where they claimed a league and cup double under British gaffer Stuart Baxter.
The 2019/20 season looks very much promising as Chiefs led by German coach Ernst Middendorp top the Absa Premiership standings with a 10 point cushion over second placed title rivals Mamelodi Sundowns with a third of the season gone.
This is in addition to their semi-final placing in the Telkom Knockout against Maritzburg on Sunday.
There is also the Nedbank Cup still to be played out this season, the future remains bright for club chairman and managing director Kaizer Motaung who this year celebrated his 75th birthday and the club he formed 49 years ago who on their 50th anniversary (in 2020) might cap it off by claiming the coveted Absa Premier League trophy.
By Gerald Dandah
