Ekasi tournaments a source of income for players

EKasi soccer tournaments have become a source of income for many players that are not playing football professionally.

The DStv eKasi champ of champs has widened the pool and uncovered talent in football that has always been spoken about in townships but never gets to be seen.

With the games live on SuperSport over the weekend, many were introduced to kasi football on tv.

Some players Play as many as 3 games a day in various tournaments, some for the same team while others play for different teams in different tournaments.

Team owners and chairmen travel far and wide looking for the best crop of players. Some of the players who play in the eKasi tournaments sometimes leave home very early in the mornings to play in various townships.

A team like Mambas FC sometimes will be involved in several tournaments all at once. Just last December, they played a 10 am Fixture at the Phyllis games in Tembisa, and then went on to play at 12 pm at the KwaMahlobo in Meadowlands zone 10 Soweto band. They rounded up by playing the third game at 4 pm at Imbewu Entle in Daveyton.

The distance from Tembisa to Soweto is 68Km and the distance from Soweto to Daveyton is 73Km. In a day, the players travel as much as 140KM for football matches.

They managed to make all these games as they have a big squad and split the team into different groups.

These players are paid anything between a thousand to ten thousand rands for tournament appearances and that’s how some of them make a living.

Many play in hoping of being scouted and securing professional contracts some play to win so they can get a share of a tournament price money.