SAFA Welcomes The Return To 100 Percent Capacity At Stadiums

SAFA Welcomes The Return To 100 Percent Capacity At Stadiums. The South African Football Association (SAFA) has welcomed the government’s decision to repeal limitations on public events gatherings, allowing capacity crowds at sports stadiums. The players are surely looking forward to playing in front of the full house, especially in the big games.

Dr NGWENYA – ‘WE STILL NEED TO BE CAUTIOUS’ 

SAFA Chief Medical Officer Doctor Thulani Ngwenya says it’s a win for South African football in terms of the stadium economy that was knocked over.

“We are back to normal,” said Doctor Ngwenya after the announcement of the decision.

“The sector has been severely affected by the pandemic and it is now time to begin the fight for recovery from an economic point of view. It is a great opportunity to recover the economy.   

“But I must add that we still need to be cautious, review our protocols on stadium safety. This is the time for us to review those protocols.” Doctor Ngwenya expanded further and said the change does not mean that vaccination must stop.

“The country has almost reached herd immunity because more than 50 percent of the country’s population has been vaccinated, and more 70 percent of the elderly population has been fully vaccinated. 

“However this doesn’t mean that we have to stop with vaccination. We still need to continue with vaccination so that we minimize the risk of severe illness,” he added.

HOW EMPTY STADIUMS AND LIMITED FANS ATTENDENCE AFFECTED TEAMS

Most of the time big teams like Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns rely on the cheering of fans who act as the 12th man as the team plays. Now the absence of fans in the past two seasons negatively impacted the results. 

Chiefs have a huge following across the whole country, any game they play, they always have more fans than the opponents. Meaning this advantage of them was missing all along. The former coach of Amakhosi Stuart Baxter spoke about the struggles they faced because of fans’ absence.

“If you look globally, during the lockdowns and the empty stadiums, I think the teams who have the most fervent supporters have suffered the most,” Baxter told the media. “Liverpool, without their fans, were a different proposition. Having said that, I still think we should demand from ourselves professionalism an da professional performance to negate that.

“I don’t think we should say we are only a good team when we have our fans. We should want to play for our fans anyway. I think it is a tragedy that the fans are not at the stadium, but at the same time it is selfish of us because we know we have great support,” added Baxter.