The growth of professional football in South Africa, as the Premier Soccer League was launched with a new look and calendar, kept up the riveting narrative on the history of the game in the country in Sunday’s third episode of SuperSport’s “Pulse of a Nation”.
The documentary series has provided a unique look at the development of the game, its role in the struggle against Apartheid and its place in South African society while also telling gripping tales of success and tragedy, and the latest episode was no exception.
Episode three, available to watch again on DStv Stream, explores the early days of the newly branded PSL and the change in the calendar of the domestic game, plus the ramifications of the tragic death of supporters at Ellis Park.
For decades, the professional season was held inside a calendar year, starting in late January and ending usually in late November or early December.
With the advent of the PSL in 1996, the season changed to an August kick-off and concluded in May, mirroring the dates of the major league competitions in Europe and North Africa.
Manning Rangers were the first winners of the PSL at the end of the 1996-97 season, upsetting the odds as part-timers and making sure of the league title by seeing off a late challenge from Orlando Pirates.
Their achievement was a major shock and with the help of former manager Afzal Khan, coach Gordon Igesund and striker George Koumantarakis, the drama of their run to the title is vividly told with incisive interviews and dramatic footage of their decisive game against the Buccaneers at Durban’s King’s Park Stadium.
The episode deals too with the Ellis Park tragedy, when 43 people died in a stampede at the Johannesburg venue on 11 April, 2001.
Dramatic images of people receiving treatment behind the goals as the derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Pirates continued are shown. The game was then halted and the pitch later littered with the dead and injured.
The aftermath of the tragedy was a judicial commission but no one was ever held responsible, despite the overwhelming evidence of poor organisation and corrupt practices, and the legacy of those incidents still casts a shadow over the fixture’s history.
It was a wake-up call to ensure better practices in the running of the game like security and ticketing and preceded a decision to slim down the top flight of the professional game by cutting the size of the elite division from 18 to 16 clubs.
Despite the drama they were also heady days for the sport with the country bidding to host a future World Cup and a buoyant economy ensuring healthy corporate commercial interest in the game.
WHAT IS NEXT THIS SUNDAY…
EPISODE FOUR: As we move into the new millennium South African football reaches new prominence as it fights for the rights to host football’s greatest showpiece, the FIFA World Cup. But as optimism for the game reaches its zenith, those who play the game face ruin - condemning South African football to an uncertain future. The PSL decides to take matters into its own hands by embarking on a broadcast rights deal that will transform the sport - but at what price, to the people who had protected the game for nearly 100 years?