The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has gone from being the Premier Soweto League to the Pretoria Soccer League.
The Soweto giants, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, have been dominant forces in the country’s football ecosystem. The two teams command the bulk of the fans, sponsors and their pulling power were strong motivation for SuperSport to invest R1.6 billion in acquiring the PSL broadcasting rights in 2007, and paying over R2 billion five years later to retain them.
Former SuperSport CEO Imtiaz Patel, who headed the pay-TV’s acquisition of the TV rights, once joked that SuperSport United, owned by the broadcaster, were hurting their business in the early years of the deal when they won the Absa Premiership three seasons in a row. Patel joked that Matsatsantsa a Pitori’s success wasn’t good for business as supporters of the two most supported clubs in South Africa weren’t acquiring decoders enough. He claimed that when Orlando Pirates were winning the league, two in a row after SuperSport’s hat-trick, that increased the number of decoders being bought.
It would be interesting to hear what Patel, or whoever is now leading the pay-TV channel, thinks of Mamelodi Sundowns’ dominance in terms of their business.
Pretoria rises to prominence
The Brazilians have monopolised the league, winning it for five consecutive seasons. They have been so powerful that co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi said they are using the DStv Premiership to prepare for their CAF Champions League matches. The desire to conquer the continent again ranks high up in Sundowns’ list of objectives. It’s so high that when they won their fifth successive league title in May, some Sundowns supporters refused to celebrate the title, arguing that Mngqithi and fellow co-coach Rhulani Mokwena had failed after losing in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Their claim is that with the money they invest in assembling the team, winning the league is a foregone conclusion so the club now needs to be judged on winning the Champions League and going far in the FIFA Club World Cup.
While Soweto slumps
While Sundowns soar, the Soweto giants have been bumbling in mediocrity. Chiefs haven’t won a trophy since the 2014/15 season. The country’s cup kings have been in such a lean spell that they probably drink water in saucers now in Naturena with their trophy cabinet thin on cups.
Pirates brought a modicum of respect to their name when they won the MTN8 in 2020, but the league is where men are separated from the boys - and with the Bucs having last won the league in the 2011/12 season, they are certainly boys in the bigger scheme of things.
Sundowns’ success has had some positives for South African football. Their pulling power has changed the landscape of the game, players are no longer driven to just feature in the Soweto Derby, the country’s biggest sporting event, they want more. They want Champions League football. They want to play abroad (Sundowns have shipped more players to the best leagues in Europe recently than the two Soweto giants combined). They want to play in the Club World Cup. And they want to secure their futures in a precarious environment. Sundowns ticks the boxes in all those desires.
To what cost?
But their monopoly isn’t good for the game, as it leads to a situation where talent is saturated in one place which inadvertently results in some of the finest players in the country not getting regular game time.
That is not Sundowns’ problem.
That is Bafana Bafana and the country’s problems. As Sundowns keep winning trophies, and Patrice Motsepe’s billions bankroll them, they will keep getting the best players from the country, and now even the North African region with the signing of Moroccan left-footed centreback Abdelmounaim Boutouil who replaces Brazilian Ricardo Nascimento.
This is where it is important for Chiefs and Pirates to do well, so that talent is spread evenly and there is strong competition. Before the 2022/23 season has even kicked off, Sundowns are strong contenders to retain the league. Betting your house on it wouldn’t be such a bad call (but talk to your partner first) such is the dominance the Brazilians have had in the country and the widening gap between them and their nearest rivals.
Pirates have been busy in the transfer market. Despite their struggles, they have still been able to assemble competitive squads which means that the problem isn’t just solely on Sundowns’ chequebook doing all the work. The Brazilians’ technical team is obsessive with their planning and are relentless in their pursuit of winning. Pitso Mosimane took the Brazilians’ winning mentality to another level.
Pirates and Chiefs’ problems are their ambitions, or lack thereof. For them, winning the league is the Holy Grail. They are not thinking beyond the South African borders. Pirates’ run to reaching the final of the CAF Confederation Cup last season and Chiefs reaching the Champions League the previous season weren’t because of strategic planning, but rather sheer luck. For these two Soweto giants to challenge Sundowns, they have to aim higher. Winning the league mustn’t just be an objective, it must be the culmination of realising a bigger project. So far, there is no project with these two clubs, and they have been clinging to their support base and reach based on history.
Sundowns are changing that, attracting the young audience and dominating people’s attention. The Soweto giants will need to seriously relook their business model and strategy if they are to even be mentioned in the same breath as Sundowns, because judging by last season’s display where the Brazilians won all the trophies without so much as breaking a sweat, the Pretoria side’s challengers are yet to be formed.
We all need the competition – and the support
Chiefs and Pirates go into this season with unproven technical teams at this level, while Sundowns have kept the core of the technical team that won them the first of their five successive league titles in the 2017-18 season. The fact that there are seven-year-olds roaming around in South Africa having never seen either of the Soweto giants win the league should be a cause for concern for the two most supported clubs, because apart from just pulling eyeballs for TV (which coincidentally have been dwindling) more competitive teams will be good for the country and the standard of the league instead of the one-horse race we currently have.